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The Statesmanship of 
ANDREW JACKSON 



The Principles of 
American Statesmanship 

The Theory, Development and Administration 

of Government in America 

as shown in the 

Writings of American Statesmen 

Ediied by 
Francis Newton Thorpe, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Fellow, and Professor of American Constitutional History in the University of 
Pennsylvania, 1885-1898; Member of the American Historical Associa- 
tion, etc., etc.; Author of The Constitutional History 0/ the United 
States, A Constitutional History of the American People, etc., etc. 



anljreto Jackson 



New York 
The Tandy-Thomas Company 



The Union must be preserved and its laws duly 
executed, but by proper means. With calmness and 
firmness such as becomes those who are conscious of 
being right and are assured of the support of public 
opinion. We must perform our duties without expect- 
ing that there are those around us desiring to tempt 
us into the wrong. We must act as the instruments 
of the law, and if force is opposed to us, in that 
capacity then we shall repel it, with the certainty, 
even should we fall as individuals, that the friends 
of liberty and Union will still be strong enough to 
prostrate their enemies. — Andrew Jackson's letter 
to J. R. Poinsett, October 26, 1830. Jet. 63. 



The Statesmanship of 

ANDREW JACKSON 



as told in his 
Writings and Speeches 



Edited by 
Francis Newton Thorpe, Ph.D., LL.D. 



New Tork 
The Tandy-Thomas Company 






Copyright, igog, by 
THE TANDY-THOMAS COMPANY 



[library of CONGRESS 
Two CoDles Received 

MAY 10 1»09 

Copyrufnt Entry 
CLASS a_ XXe. No. 

-- Copy i. 



/ 



^>o 



CONTENTS 



c/U 



Biographical Outline 



PAGB 

7 



Jackson's Cabinet lo 

Introduction .11 



LETTERS OF NULLIFICATION, 1830-1833: 

To Robert Oliver, October 26, 1830 , . . .17 

To Joel R. Poinsett, December 2, 1832 . . . 18 

To Joel R. Poinsett, December 9, 1832 . . • 19 

To Joel R. Poinsett, January 16, 1833 . . .21 

To Joel R. Poinsett, January 24, 1833 . . .22 

To Joel R. Poinsett, February 7, 1833 . . -25 

To Joel R. Poinsett, February 17, 1833 . . .27 

STATE PAPERS, 1829-1837: 

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1829 . . -31 
First Annual Message, December 8, 1829 . . .35 

Veto Message, May 27, 1830 66 

Second Annual Message, December 6, 1830 . .82 
Message on Indian Affairs, February 22, 1 83 1 . . 125 
Third Annual Message, December 6,1831. . -133 
Veto Message, Bank of the United States, July 10, 1832 . 154 
Fourth Annual Message, December 4, 1832 . . .177 
Message on the South Carolina Ordinance and Procla- 
mation of Governor Hamilton, January 16, 1833 . 200 
Anti-Nullification Proclamation, December 10, 1832 , 232 
Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1833 . . -257 
Removal of the Public Deposits — Paper Read to the 

Cabinet, September 18, 1833 261 

5 



6 Contents 

STATE PAPERS, iZ2f)-\?,z']— Continued 

Fifth Annual Message, December 3, 1833 . . . 282 
Veto Message — Public Lands, December 4, 1833 . . 305 
Protest on the Expunging Resolution, April 15, 1834 . 325 
Sixth Annual Message, December i, 1834 . . .361 
Seventh Annual Message, December 7, 1835 . . 399 
Message on Affairs with France, January 15, 1836 . 443 
Eighth Annual Message, December 5, 1836 . . .451 
Message on Texas and Mexico, December 21, 1836 . 487 
Farewell Address, March 4, 1837 .... 493 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



517 



INDEX 



521 



Biographical Outline. 



1767 — March 15. 



i78c>-(i78i?), 
1781 — 1784. 

1784—. 
1788—. 



1 79 1 — July or Aug. 

1 794 — January. 
1 796 — Jan.-Feb. 



1 787-. 



1 798-. 

1801 — . 
1804 — . 

1806—. 



Born, Waxhaw Settlement, South Caro- 
hna, of Irish parents. Death of his 
father. Taken prisoner, with his 
brother, by the British, and confined 
for a time at Camden. Death of his 
two brothers during the Revolu- 
tion. 

Death of his mother. 

Working as best he could, and some 
time at the saddler's trade. 

Law-student at Salisbury, N. C. 

Through Superior Court Judge John 
McNairy appointed Public Prose- 
cutor of the Western District of 
N. C. (Tennessee). 

Married Rachel Donelson, widow of 
Lewis Robards, at Natchez, Miss. 

Second marriage ceremony. 

Member of Tennessee Constitutional 

Convention; said to have suggested 

the name of the State. Elected 

Member of Congress. 
Elected U. S. Senator to succeed 

Blount, expelled. Resigned, April, 

1798. 
Elected Judge of Supreme Court, 

Tennessee. 
Elected Major-General of Militia. 
Resigned as judge. Devoted himself 

to business. 
Duel with Dickinson; seriously 

wounded. 



8 

i8i3 — January. 

September. 
1814 — May 31. 

181 5 — January 8. 
March. 

1818— . 

1 82 1 — . 
1823—. 



Andrew Jackson 



1824 — March. 



1828—. 

1829 — March i. 
November. 

1830 — April 13. 



Enters miUtary service (volunteers) 

War of 1812. 
Duel with Benton. The Creek War. 

Appointed Major-General in U. S. 
Army. 

Battle of New Orleans. 

Fined $1,000 by Judge Hall ; refunded, 
principal and interest, by act of 
Congress, 1844. 

Carries the war into Florida. Case of 
Arbuthnot and Ambrister. Sem- 
inole War. 

Governor of Florida. 

Declined mission to Mexico. Elected 
U. S. Senator from Tennessee. 
Talked of as a presidential candi- 
date. Nominated by several State 
Legislatures, beginning with Ten- 
nessee, July 20, 1823. 

The Harrisburg convention " stam- 
peded " for Jackson. Received 99 
electoral votes; Adams, 84; Craw- 
ford, 41 ; Clay, 37. Adams elected 
by the House of Representatives. 
(February 9, 1825.) 

Author of the rumor of a " corrupt 
bargain " between Clay and Adams. 

Elected President. Jackson, electoral 
votes, 178; Adams, 83. 

Inaugurated President. 

Breaks with Calhoun. Slated by his 
" managers " to succeed himself as 
President. 

Jackson's toast at the Jefferson dinner : 
" Our Federal Union : It must be 
preserved ! " 



Biographical Outline 



1830 — May. 



1832 — July 10. 



Dec. 10. 
1833 — March 4. 
Sept. 18. 

1834 — March. 



1835— Jan. 30. 
1836 — Jan. 18. 



1837 — March 4. 
March 7. 



1837— 1845. 



1845 — June 8. 



Maysville Road veto. Attacks the 
United States Bank in his first An- 
nual Message (1829) and in later 
Messages. 

Veto of the Bank. 

Re-elected President : Jackson, elect- 
oral votes, 219; Clay, 49; Floyd, 11 
(S. C, Nullification ticket) ; Wirt, 
7 (Vt., Anti-masonic). 

Anti-Nullification Proclamation, 

Inaugurated President. 

Removal of the Deposits, See " Paper 
read to the Cabinet." 

Censure of the President by the Sen- 
ate. This resolution was " ex- 
punged, by order of the Senate," 
January 16, 1837. 

Attempt to assassinate the President. 

Special Message on relations with 
France, Compare with Annual 
Messages, 1834, 1835, 1836, See 
also Messages of 1835, 1836, 1837 
for information on relations with 
Texas, slavery, the public lands, 
foreign affairs. 

Jackson's political influence thrown in 
favor of Van Buren as his suc- 
cessor. 

Inauguration of Van Buren, 

Jackson leaves Washington for his 
home near Nashville, " The Her- 
mitage," Tennessee, 

Remains chief of the Democratic 
Party ; consulted freely and used as 
far as possible as a political asset by 
ambitious and designing politicians. 

Died at " The Hermitage." 



Jackson's Cabinet. 

Secretary of State — 

Martin Van Buren, New York, March 6, 1829. 
Edward Livingstone, Louisiana, May 24, 183 1. 
Louis McLane, Delaware, May 29, 1833. 
John Forsyth, Georgia, June 2^, 1834. 

Secretary of Treasury — 

Samuel D. Ingham, Pennsylvania, March 6, 1829. 
Louis McLane, Delaware, August 8, 1831. 
William J. Duane, Pennsylvania, May 29, 1833. 
Roger B. Taney, Maryland, September 23, 1833. 
Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire, June 27, 1834. 

Secretary of War — 

John H. Eaton, Tennessee, March 9, 1829. 
Lewis Cass, Michigan, August i, 1831. 

Secretary of Navy — 

John Branch, North Carolina, March 9, 1829. 
Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire, May 23, 1831. 
Mahlon Dickerson, New Jersey, June 30, 1834. 

Attorney-General — 

John M. Berrien, Georgia, March 9, 1829. 
Roger B. Taney, Maryland, July 20, 1831. 
Benjamin F. Butler, New York, November 15, 1833. 

Postmaster-General — 

William T. Barry, Kentucky, March 9, 1829. 
Amos Kendall, Kentucky, May 1, 1835. 



Introduction. 

For nearly forty years Andrew Jackson was the most 
popular man in America; from the day when he won the 
great victory at New Orleans until his last utterances at 
" The Hermitage," the common people heard and followed 
him gladly : and for years after his death, his name was a 
name to be conjured with in American politics. He left the 
presidency as popular as he entered it, and having served 
two terms named his successor. Of no other President is 
this true. And though Van Buren's administration reaped 
the whirlwind, the mass of the American people did not for 
a moment blame Andrew Jackson as the cause of panic and 
disaster. The German historian of the United States, Von 
Hoist, writes of " The Reign of Andrew Jackson," and 
later historians and biographers have caught up the strain. 
Tyranny and despotism were easy words in Jackson's time : 
he often uses them when speaking of nullification, and the 
Whigs applied the terms to Jackson's administration. It is 
somewhat paradoxical that the idol of American Democracy 
should have been an autocrat. It is well known that the 
Federalist historians got the initiative and told their story 
largely to the conversion of posterity ; the Democratic his- 
torians, until later years, have been relegated to second 
place. Doubtless the explanation lies in the course and the 
consequences of the long and finally terrible conflict between 
Confederacy and Nation : the supremacy of the Nation giv- 
ing character and standing to Federalist ideas which other- 
wise never had come to them. 

One result of the predominance of the Hamiltonian 
School, at least in American literature, has been the general 
hostility of historians and biographers to Andrew Jackson. 
Eulogies of Jackson are as plentiful as. blackberries, but 
most of them were written by standing political candidates 
who sought by praising Jackson to be suffered to gather up 
some of the crumbs which fell from the White House table. 



II 



12 Andrew Jackson 

It was the zeal of Jackson's followers which weakened him 
and laid open his administration to the contempt and the 
attacks of his political enemies. But this body of pamphlet 
flattery long since vanished into the obscurity of collections ; 
only the resolute now glance at them; only the intrepidly 
enthusiastic read them. 

Over against this murky sky of excessive praise rise the 
yet murkier clouds of excessive condemnation of Jackson : 
the Whig judgment, the Abolitionist judgment, the Na- 
tional Republican judgment, the loud, angry, insistent 
anti-Jackson judgment, whether Webster's, or Clay's, or Cal- 
houn's, or John Quincy Adams's, or William Lloyd Garri- 
son's, or the judgment of the most obscure private in the 
anti-Jackson ranks. Perhaps the body of this condemnation 
is greater than that of indiscriminate praise : it is a notable 
collection in the several Historical Societies' libraries. Cer- 
tain it is that the line of cleavage in popular opinion as to 
Andrew Jackson ran deeper, sharper, and clearer than any 
like line as to any other American. 

He must have been a rare man who provoked this agita- 
tion, this praise, this condemnation. The times in which he 
lived must have been unsettled times ; a period of transition, 
as the historians are likely to say. One desires, amidst the 
tumult, to see and know Andrew Jackson : let the flatterers 
and the detractors cease their din. Jackson is equal to tell- 
ing his own story ; he is capable of action ; events can speak 
for themselves. One discovers that Jackson was a maker of 
history; his acts are public; his motives he discloses himself 
in the intimacy of private correspondence and the respon- 
sible utterances of official life. 

Undoubtedly nullification put Jackson to the supreme 
test as a statesman. The refusal to recharter the United 
States Bank was an administrative question; nullification 
involved nationality : one was a matter of policy ; the other, 
of principle. The critical act of Jackson's presidency was 
his treatment of nullification. He clearly understood the 
issue : nullification, secession, civil war. It meant union or 
disunion. 

The most severe of Jackson's critics pause to praise him 
for his conduct toward the nullifiers. Tradition assigns him 
even more vigorous speech than was usual with him in his 



Introduction 1 3 

comments on nullification and its leaders; his private cor- 
respondence at the time, a part of which is for the first time 
now published in this volume, lays bare his heart's desire : 
the salvation of his native state, South Carolina, from dis- 
grace; the preservation of the Union. This was his atti- 
tude ; no man was deceived ; what he said in private he was 
prepared to execute. He would, if necessary, march an 
army of 250,000 men into South Carolina to sustain the 
Constitution and the laws. There was nothing of bluster 
and rodomontade in his utterances; in this tradition has 
done Jackson some injustice. His decision was braver, 
firmer, and more irrevocable than even the nullifiers under- 
stood. Jackson was fundamentally a man of action, but of 
action within the bounds of the law. His aggressiveness 
was the aggressiveness of the right : his letters to Poinsett 
disclose this. The figure of an angry Andrew Jackson itch- 
ing to hang the high-priest of nullification, Calhoun, is a 
caricature. Had the nullifiers in South Carolina, or in any 
other state, actually assembled under arms to obstruct the 
execution of the laws of the United States, and their as- 
sembling had been certified to President Jackson, by lawful 
evidence, he not only would have suppressed the insurrec- 
tion by force of arms, but also would have caused the arrest 
of the leaders, whoever they might be, and handing them 
over to the civil authorities would have brought them to 
trial for conspiracy and treason. Throughout the tense ex- 
citement of nullification Jackson never once hints at military 
dictatorship : he speaks ever of the supremacy of the Con- 
stitution and the laws. His famous Proclamation accords 
strictly with the spirit of his private correspondence on 
nullification. 

His vigor in combating nullification characterized the 
foreign and domestic policy of his entire administration. 
Later historians justly recognize the great value to the coun- 
try of Jackson's foreign policy. It was not a game of bluff, 
or a series of compromises, or a continuation of diplomatic 
delays : it was a clear definition, an insistent demand, an 
effective recognition of the rights of this country in the 
family of nations. Relations with France were delicate 
and shifty: Jackson made them strong and clear. There 
was the touch of Cromwell in his foreign policy, and the 



14 Andrew Jackson 

CromwelHan touch unfailingly brings the recalcitrant to 
book. 

Like Washington, Jackson, having served eight years in 
the presidency, issued a Farewell Address to his country- 
men. Though less famed than Washington's it is no less 
patriotic, nor less beneficent in scope and purpose. Perhaps 
its chief value is its long defence and apology for his official 
career : it is the history of " The Reign of Andrew Jack- 
son," written at least by Jackson's authority. And true to 
his characteristics he most warmly defends those elements 
of his policy most bitterly assailed by his political enemies. 

Jackson's place in the order of American statesmen is 
with Webster, Calhoun, and Clay, each of whom he discom- 
fited in the long struggle for place, power, and popularity. 
No coalition they could form could break him down : he 
defied each and all of them and carried through much of 
his policy without their aid. Biographers and the host of 
monographists who love to browse on pamphlets and the 
bibliography of public men have not neglected to italicize 
Jackson's defects as writer or speaker, and only of late have 
discovered that his uniform practice was but a premature 
use of the reformed spelling. But of late years, and since 
the profound significance of the Civil War is better under- 
stood, Jackson's place among American statesmen is by gen- 
eral accord side by side with the foremost. He was an 
illiterate man, and his famous state papers, the " Anti-Nulli- 
fication Proclamation " and the " Paper on the Bank of the 
United States," were written, the one by his Secretary of 
State, the other, by his Attorney-General; yet his spelling 
was no worse than Monroe's, and like Monroe's steadily 
grew better as he grew older. His essential political creed 
— the preservation of the Union — was the essential creed of 
Washington and Lincoln. 

The seven letters on nullification are printed, verbatim et 
literatim et punctuatim, from the Jackson letters in the 
Poinsett Collection in the Library of the Pennsylvania His- 
torical Society, to whose courtesy and permission acknowl- 
edgments are due. These letters, it is believed, are now 
printed for the first time. 

Francis Newton Thorpe. 



The Statesmanship of 
Andrew Jackson. 



h 



LETTERS ON NULLIFICATION 

1830-1833 

"Abhorrence of debt, public and private, dislike of 
banks, and love of hard money — love of justice and 
love of country, were ruling passions with Jackson ; 
and of these he gave constant evidence in all the 
situations of his life. 

*'The character of his mind was that of judgment, 
with a rapid and almost intuitive perception, followed 
by an instant and decisive action. It was that which 
made him a General, and a President for the time in 
which he served. He had vigorous thoughts, but not 
the faculty of arranging them in a regular composi- 
tion, either written or spoken ; and in formal papers 
he usually gave his draft to an aid, a friend, or a secre- 
tary, to be written over — often to the loss of vigor. 
But the thoughts were his own vigorously expressed ; 
and without effort, writing with a rapid pen, and 
never blotting or altering ; but, as Carlyle says of 
Cromwell, hitting the nail upon the head as he went. 

" He had a load to carry all his life; resulting from 
a temper which refused compromises and bargaining, 
and went for a clean victory or a clean defeat, in 
every case. Hence, every step he took was a contest ; 
and, it may be added, every contest was a victory. 

" His election as President was a victory over 
politicians — as was every leading event of his ad- 
ministration." — Thomas H. Benton, Thirty Tears' 
Fiew, Vol. II, pp. 737, 738. 



Letters on Nullification.* 

1 830- 1 833. 

Washington Octbr 26th 1830 
Dear Sir, I had the honour this evening to receive your 
letter of the 25th instant with the enclosure, and agreable 
to your request herewith return it, with a tender of my 
thanks for this token of your friendship & regard. 

I had supposed that everyone acquainted with me knew 
that I was opposed to the nulifying doctrine, and that my 
toast at the Jefferson dinner was sufficient evidence of the 
fact. I am convinced there is not one member of Congress 
who are not convinced of this fact, for on all occasions I 
have been open & free upon this subject. The South Car- 
olineans, as a whole, are too patriotic to adopt such mad 
projects as the nulifyers of that state propose. 

That Mr. Van Buren should be suspected of such opin- 
ions are equally strange. 

I am Sir with great respect & regard 
your mo. obdt- servt- 

Andrew Jackson 
Robert Oliver Esqr 

* These letters by Andrew Jackson, now for the first time printed, 
are copied, literatim et punctuatitn, from the originals in the Poinsett 
Collection in the Library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Phila- 
delphia. They aid in understanding the circumstances under which 
the famous Anti-NulHfication Proclamation was issued. They reveal 
the man Jackson. In the more impassioned passages the Presi- 
dent's emotions are plainly hinted at, and unconsciously, in his hand- 
writing. As his feelings are the more profoundly stirred the script 
under his hand grows larger, heavier, more broken. Undoubtedly 
the supremacy of the Union has aligned Jackson with that great com- 
pany of its defenders of whom Lincoln is chief. Jackson's "The 
Union: It must and shall be preserved!" has passed into common 
American speech with Lincoln's "Government of the people, by the 
people and for the people." 

«7 



1 8 Andrew Jackson 

December 2d 1832 

My Dr Sir, Your two letters of No'^ 24 & 25th last have 
been received, and I hasten to acknowledge them. 

I fully concur with you in your views of nullification. 
It leads directly to civil war ad bloodshed and deserves he 
execration of every friend of our country. Should the 
civil power with your aid as a posse comitatus prove not 
strong enough to carry into effect the laws of the Union 
you have a right to call upn the Government for aid and 
the Executive will yield it as far as he has been vested 
with the power by the constitution ad the laws, made in 
pursuance thereof. 

The prevailing measures spoken of in your last letter 
have been in some degree anticipated. Five thousand 
stand of muskets with corresponding equipments have been 
ordered to Castle Pinckney; and a sloop of war with a 
smaller armed vessel the experiment will reach Carlston 
harbor in due time. The commanding officer of Castle 
Pinckney will be instructed by the Secretary of War to de- 
liver he arms and their equipment to your order, taking a 
receipt for them; and should the emergency arise he will 
furnish to your requisition such ordnance and ordnance 
stores as can be spared from the arsenals. 

The Union must be preserved, and its laws duly executed 
by proper means. With calmness and firmness such as be- 
comes those who are conscious of being right and are as- 
sured of the support of public opinion. We must perform 
our duties without expecting that there are those around us 
desiring to tempt us into the wrong. We must act as the 
instruments of the law and if force is opposed to us in that 
capacity then we shall repel it with the certainty, even 
should we fail as individuals, that the friends of liberty 
and union will still be strong enough to prostrate their 
enemies.* 

♦Compare this paragraph with the closing paragraph of Lincoln's 
Second Inaugural: 

" With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the 
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 



Letters on Nullification 19 

Your union men should act in concert : their designation 
as unionists should teach them to be prepared for every 
emergency; and inspire them with the energy to over- 
come every impediment that may be thrown in the way of 
the laws of their constitution whose cause is now not only 
their cause but that of free institutions throughout the 
world. They should recollect that perpetuity is stamped 
upon the constitution by the blood of our Fathers, — by 
those who achieved as well as those who improved our 
system of free government. For this* purpose was the 
principle of amendment inserted in the constitution which 
all have sworn to support, and in violation of which no 
state or states have the right to dissolve the Union. Nul- 
lification therefore means insurrection & war; and you also 
and all other peaceable citizens have a right to aid in the 
same patriotic object, when summoned by the violated 
laws of the land. Should an emergency occur for the arms 
before the order of the Secretary of War to the command- 
ing officer to deliver them to your order, show this to him 
& he will yield a compliance. 

I am great haste 
Yr mo obd* servt 
J. R. Poinsett Esqr Andrew Jackson 



Decbr 9th, 1832, Washington 

My Dr Sir. Your letters were this moment reed, from 
the hands of Col. Drayton, read & duly considered, & in 
haste I reply. The true spirit of patriotism that they breath 
fills me with pleasure. If the Union party unite with 
you, heart & hand in the text you have laid down, you 
will not only preserve the Union, but save our native state, 
from that ruin and disgrace into which her treasonable 

we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all 
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
selves, and with all nations."— March 4, 1865. Lincoln, Complete 
Works, Vol. XI, pp. 46, 4J. — New York, The Tandy-Thomas Company. 



20 Andrew Jackson 

leaders have attempted to plunge her. All the means in 
my power, I will employ to enable her own citizens, 
those faithful patriots, who cling to the Union, to put it 
down. 

The proclamation I have this day issued, & which I in- 
close you, will give you my views, of the treasonable con- 
duct of the convention & he Governors recommendation to 
the assembly — it is not merely rebellion, but the act of 
raising troops positive treason, and I am assured by all the 
members of Congress with whom I have conversed that I 
will be sanctioned by Congress. If so, I will meet it at the 
threshold, and have the leaders arrested and arraigned for 
treason. I am only waiting to be furnished with the acts 
of your Legislature to make a communication to Congress, 
ask the means necessary to carry my proclamation into com- 
pleat effect, and by an exemplary punishment of those 
leaders for treason so unprovoked, put down the rebellion, 
& strengthen our happy Government both at home and 
abroad. 

My former letter & communication from the Dept. 
of War, will have informed you of the arms and equip- 
ments having been laid in Deposit subject to your requisi- 
tion of the law, whenever called on as the posse comitatus 
&c &c 

The vain threats of resistance by those who have raised 
the standard of rebellion show their madness & folly. You 
may assure those patriots, who cling to their country, & 
this Union, which alone secures our liberty prosperity and 
happiness, that in forty days I can have within the limits 
of So Carolina fifty thousand men, and in forty days more 
another fifty thousand. How impotent the threat of resist- 
ance with only a population of 250,000 whites & nearly 
that double in blacks with our ships in the port, to aid in 
the execution of our laws ? The weakness, madness & folly 
of the leaders & the delusion of their followers in the at- 
tempt to destroy themselves & our Union has not its par- 
alel in the history of the world. The Union will be pre- 



Letters on Nullification 21 

served. The safety of the repubhc, the supreme law, which 
will be promptly obeyed by me. 

I will be happy to hear from you often thro' Col. Mason 
or his son, if you think the postoffice unsafe. 

I am with sincere respect 
Yr mo. ohdt servt 
Mr. Poinsett Andrew Jackson 

(Private) 

Washington Jany i6th 1833 
My Dr Sir, This day I have communicated to both 
houses of Congress the inclosed message, which has been 
referred to the committees on the Judiciary, who we have 
a right to believe will promptly report a bill giving all the 
powers asked for. 

I have read several letters from gentlemen in So Caro- 
lina, requesting to be furnished with the means of Defence. 
Mr. J. Graham, an old revolutionary patriot, a Mr. Harri- 
son and Col Levy — I have requested Genl Blair to inform 
Col Levy to apply to you & I request that you will make it 
known confidentially that when necessary, you are author- 
ized, & will furnish the necessary means of defence. 

Mr. Calhoun let of a little of his ire against me to day in 
the Senate, but was so agitated & confused that he made 
quite a failure, was replied to, with great dignity & firm- 
ness, by Major Forsythe — Calhoun finds himself between 
Scylla & Caribdes & was reckless — My great desire is that 
the Union men may put nullification & secession down in 
So Carolina, themselves, & save the character of the State, 
& add thereby to the stability of our Union. You can rely 
on every aid that I can give — only advise me of the action 
of the nullifyers, — The moment they are in hostile array in 
opposition to the execution of the laws, let it be certified to 
me, by the Atto for the District, or the judge, and I will 
forthwith order the leaders prosecuted, & arrested, if the 
marshall is resisted by 12,000 bayonets, I will have his 
posse 24,000 — but the moment there rebellious faction find 



22 Andrew Jackson 

they are opposed by the good people of that state, with a 
resolution becoming free men and worthy the name of 
Americans and under the protection of the Union, they will 
yield to the power of the law, and return to their obedience. 
I write in great haste, late at night, and much fatigued, & 
indisposed by a bad cold, you will excuse this scratch, it is 
for your own eye — Write me often & give me the earliest 
intelligence of the first armed force that appears in the field 
to sustain the ordenance. The first act of treason commit- 
ted, unites to it, all those who have aided or abetted in the 
excitement to the act — we will strike at the head and demol- 
ish the monster nullification & secession, at the threshold by 
the power of the law 

I am very respectfully 
Joel R. Poinsett Esqr Yr mo. obdt. serv/. 

Andrew Jackson 

Washington January 24th- 1833 
My dear Sir. I have reed yours of the 1 6th- 1 9th & 20th 
instant, that of the i6th late last night & hasten to reply by 
the return express which will leave here early tomorrow. 
■ My message to Congress, forwarded to you by the last 
express was referred to the committee in each house, on the 
judiciary — that of the Senate has reported a bill which you 
will receive from the Secretary of the Treasury by the con- 
veyance that will hand you this. You will see from a pe- 
rusal, that it contains, with the powers now possessed, every 
authority necessary to enable the executive to execute the 
revenue laws, and protect our citizens engaged in their sup- 
port, & to punish all who may attempt to resist their execu- 
tion by force. This bill has been made the order of the day 
for Monday next, and altho this delay has been submited 
to by the Senate, still I have no doubt but it will pass by a 
very large majority in both Houses. There will be some 
intemperate discussion on the bill & on Calhouns and 
Grundys resolutions. 

It was my duty to make known to Congress, being in 



Letters on Nullification 23 

session, the state of the Union, I witheld to the last moment 
to give Congress time to act before the first of February — 
having done my duty in in this respect, should Congress fail 
to act on the bill, and I shall be informed of the illegal as- 
semblage of an armed force with intention to oppose the 
execution of the revenue laws, under the late ordinance of 
So Carolina, I stand prepared forthwith to issue my procla- 
mation warning them to disperse — should they fail to com- 
ply with the proclamation, I will forthwith call into the field 
such a force as will overaw resistance, put treason & rebel- 
lion down without blood, and arrest and hand over to the 
judiciary for trial and punishment, the leaders, exciters and 
promoters of this rebellion & treason. 

You need not fear the assemblage of a large force (at 
Charleston) — give me early information officially, of the 
assemblage of a force armed, to carry into effect the ordi- 
nance & laws, nullifying our revenue laws, and to prevent 
their execution, and in ten or fifteen days at farthest, I will 
have in Charleston from ten to fifteen thousand well organ- 
ized troops, well equiped for the field — and twenty thou- 
sand or thirty, more, in their interest, I have a tender of 
volunteers from every state in the Union — I can, if need be 
— which God forbear, march two hundred thousand men in 
forty days to quell any & every insurrection or rebellion 
that might arise to threaten our glorious confederacy & 
Union, upon which our liberty prosperity & happiness rests. 

I repeat to the union men again, fear not the Union will 
he preserved & treason & rebellion promptly put down, 
when & where it may shew its monster head. You may rest 
assured that the nullies of Carolina will receive no aid from 
any quarter. They have been encouraged by a few from 
Georgia and Virginia, but the united force of the yeomanry 
of the country and the tender of volunteers from every 
state has put this down. They will know I will execute 
the laws, and that the whole people will support me in it, 
and preserve the Union — even if the Governor of Virginia 
should have the folly to attempt to prevent the militia from 



24 Andrew Jackson 

marching thro this state to put the faction in So Carolina 
down & place himself at the head of an armed force for 
such a wicked purpose. I would arrest him at the head of 
his troops, & hand him over to the civil authority for trial — 
The volunteers of his own state would enable me to do this. 
I repeat again, my pride and desire is, that the Union ever 
may arouse & sustain the majority of the constitution & the 
laws, and save my native state from that disgrace that the 
nullifyers have brought upon her — give me only intelli- 
gence of the open assemblage of an armed force any where 
in the state, under the ordinance & the laws to nullify & re- 
sist the revenue laws of the United States, and you may 
rest assured I will act promptly and do my duty to God and 
my country, & relieve the good citizens of that despotism 
& tyranny under which the supporters of the Union now 
labour. 

On yesterday the tariff bill would have passed house of 
representatives had it not been for a very insulting & irri- 
tating speech by Wilde of Georgia which has thrown the 
whole of Pennsylvania, New York & Ohio into a flame. I 
am told there is great excitement, no hopes now of its pass- 
ing this session — it is further believed that the speech was 
made for this purpose, at the instigation of the nullies, who 
wish no accommodation of the tariff. This will unite the 
whole people against the nullifiers & instead of carrying the 
South with the nullies, will have the effect to arouse them 
against them when it it discovered their object is nothing 
but disunion. The House sat late & I have not heard from 
it since 7 o'clock — I must refer you to Mr. McLane for 
further information, as it is very late & my eyes grow dim 
— Keep me well advised, & constantly — The arms are 
placed subject to your requisition, and under your discre- 
tion. 

I keep no copy, nor have I time to correct this letter 
In haste very respectfully 
Your friend 
J. R. Poinsett Esqr Andrew Jackson 



Letters on Nullification 25 

Washington City February 7th 1833 ^--^ 

Dr Sir. Yours of the 27th and 28th ultimo, have been 
handed me by Mr. Smith, that of the 30th through Col 
Drayton has also been re'^d. Their contents being con- 
sidered I hasten to reply. 

The nullifiers in your State have placed themselves thus 
far in the wrong. They must be kept there, notwithstand- 
ing all their tyranny and blustering conduct, until some act 
of force is committed or there is an open assemblage of an 
armed force by orders of your Governor under the ordi- 
nance and Replevin laws to resist the execution of the laws 
of the United States, the Executive of the United States 
has no legal ad constitutional power to order the militia 
into the field to suppress it, and not then, until his procla- 
mation commanding he insurgents to disperse has been 
issued. But this you may rely on, will be promptly done by 
the president the moment he is advised by proper affidavits 
that such is the condition of your State. You should not 
therefore fear the result, if the movement anticipated from 
the upper country for the purpose of enforcing the odious 
and despotic writ in withernam should really be made. 

Keep me advised of the first actual assemblage of an 
armed force in the upper part of your State, or in any 
other part of it, or in any part of the adjoining states, and 
before it reaches you I shall interpose a force for your pro- 
tection and that of the city strong enough to overwhelm any 
effort to obstruct the execution of the laws. But bear in 
mind the fact that this step must be consequent upn the 
actual open assemblage of such a force or upon some overt 
act of its commission. In this case which I trust in God 
will not happen, I will act and with firmness, promptness 
and efficiency. 

I sincerely lament that there is a contingency so probable 
which menaces the safety of those who are acting with you 
to sustain the Union and laws of our happy country. But 
let what will happen remain at your post in the perform- 
ance of this the highest of all duties. Be firm in the support 



26 Andrew Jackson 

of the Union; it is the sheet anchor of our hberty and 
prosperity, dissolve it and our fate will be that of unhappy 
Mexico. But it cannot be dissolved; the national voice 
from Maim to Loueseana with a unanimity and resolution 
never before exceeded declares that it shall be preserved 
and those who are assailing it under the guise of nullifica- 
tion and secession shall be consigned to contempt and in- 
famy. 

In resisting the tyrannic measures by which the ruling 
party in So Carolina have prepared to obstruct the laws of 
the Union you are thrown back upon the right of self- 
defence. Deprived of the protection guaranteed to you by 
your own constitution, violent resistance to the tyranny 
which thus oppresses you becomes a duty, and in the per- 
formance of it the constitution and the laws of the United 
States will be your shield. Do not doubt that the shield 
will be upheld with all the power which I am or may be 
authorized to use. 

As soon as I am notified that the hostile array which you 
anticipate has been made the positions recommended as 
proper to be occupied for defence will be taken. Of this 
fact let me be notified by an express who will bring the 
proper evidences of it. 

I have regretted that your convention did not, as such, 
memorealise Congress to extend to you the guarantee of 
the constitution, of a republican form of government, stat- 
ing the actual despotism which now controls the state. The 
action of Congress on the subject would have placed your 
situation before the whole Union and filled the heart of 
every true lover of his country and its liberties with indig- 
nation. 

I can order the regular troops to take any position which 
may be found necessary; but your own advice has been to 
" do nothing to irritate." When the crisis comes and I is- 
sue my proclamation, authority will be given to embody all 
volunteers enrolled for the support and execution of the 
laws, and the officers of the same of their own selection 



Letters on Nullification 27 

will be sanctioned by the President, as has been usual upon 
the receipt of the muster rolls. 

It has just been mentioned to me that a bet has been 
taken by a man supposed to be in the secrets of the nulli- 
fiers that the convention will be called and the odious ordi- 
nance repealed. God grant that this may be true. Let not 
this hope, however, lessen your watchfulness or your exer- 
tions. My pride is to save the character of my native state 
by the patriotism of its own citizens. Firmness on your 
part will do this. 

The tariff will be reduced to the wants of the Govern- 
ment if not at this session of Congress certainly at the next. 

Referring you to Mr. Smith I close this hasty scrawl 
with my prayers for your happiness. 
J. R. Poinsett Esqr Andrew Jackson 

(Private) 

Washington February 17th, 1833. 

My dear Sir, I have just received your letter of the 9th 
instant. I never once thought, that the mission of Mr. 
Leigh, with his powers, would be attended with any bene- 
ficial result whatever. It has only served to place the leg- 
islature of Virginia in a disagreeable attitude, and has done 
more harm than it can good. Had Virginia passed resolu- 
tions disapproving as she has done, nullification, and ad- 
monishing the nullifiers to retrace their steps, this would 
have done much good, and instead of encouraging them in 
expecting her aid, would have caused them to have re- 
pealed their ordinance. The great body of the people of 
Virginia are firmly opposed to the course of the Legisla- 
ture in this respect, and will support the United States 
nohly, should the crisis come, which I trust the firmness of 
the Union men may yet prevent. 

The bill granting the powers asked will pass into a law. 
Mr. Webster replied to Mr. Calhoun yesterday, and, it is 
said, demolished him. It is believed by more than one, that 



28 Andrew Jackson 

Mr. C. is in a state of clementation. — his speech was a per- 
fect failure ; and Mr. Webster handled him as a child. I fear 
we have many nullifiers in Congress who dare not openly 
appear. The vote on the pending bill will unrobe them. 

I am delighted to learn that you will convene the union 
convention simultaneously with that of the nullifiers, or 
soon after. A bold and resolute stand will put them down, 
and you will thereby save the character of your state. 
When you recollect the noble cause you are defending, — 
that our previous Union is the stake, that the arm of the 
United States sustained by nineteen twentieth of the whole 
people is extended over you, — you cannot be otherwise than 
firm, resolute and inflexible. One resolution, — that you 
nail the United States colours to the mast, and will go down 
with the Union or live free, that you will to your last 
breath, resist the tyranny and oppression of their ordinance, 
test oath and unconstitutional proceedings, will restore to 
you peace and tranquillity, which a well adjusted tariff 
will confirm. 

Before the receipt of your letter Mr. Livingston had an 
interview with Mr. Bankhead on the subject of the conduct 
of the British Consul at Charleston. Mr. Blankhead has 
written & admonished him that his exequater will be re- 
voked on his first act of interference. This I assure you, 
will be done. I have only to request that you will give me 
the earliest intelligence that you can obtain of his having 
ordered a British squadron to the port of Charleston; and 
on an affidavit of the fact of one arriving there, his exe- 
quater will be revoked. 

Keep me constantly advised of all movements in South 
Carolina, — the marshalling troops to oppose the execution 
of the laws of the U. States, affirmed on affidavit, and I 
will forthwith use all my powers under the constitution and 
the laws to put them down. 

With great respect, 

Yr friend 
J. R. Poinsett Esqr Andrew Jackson 



Letters on Nullification 29 

President Jackson was kept informed of the course of affairs in 
South Carolina by his correspondents, among whom was Augustus 
Fitch, who, in a letter written from Columbia, S. C, March i6, 1833, 
the day after the repeal of the Ordinance of Nullification, describes 
the conclusion of the matter. Many nuUifiers had been brought to 
their senses by the President's stern purpose to enforce the revenue 
laws and Clay's compromise tariff bill. When the convention re- 
assembled, on the fifteenth of March, only four delegates voted against 
repeal because they thought that Clay's bill "did not fully abandon 
the principle of protection." Clay's attitude seems to have puzzled 
some of his followers at the South. McDuffie, who divided with Cal- 
houn the leadership of the nullification movement, spoke in the con- 
vention (so writes Fitch) "lovingly" of Clay as "our ally in the West 
whom we have recently gained," and thereupon congratulated the 
convention on the triumph of nullification through Clay's compromise 
bill. Governor Hamilton made a conciliatory speech, as did others, 
and the repeal of the ordinance was carried. 

On the back of Fitch's letter Jackson made this endorsement: 

"The Ordinance & all law under it repealed — so ends the wicked & 
disgraceful conduct of Calhoun McDuffie & their co nullies. They will 
only be remembered, to be held up to scorn, by every one who loves 
freedom, our glorious constitution & government of laws. A J." 

(From the MS. Fitch letter, sometime in possession of the Editor.) 



II 

STATE PAPERS 

1829— 1837 

" Yes, autocrat as he was, Andrew Jackson loved 
the people, the common people, the sons and daugh- 
ters of toil, as truly as they loved him, and believed in 
them as they believed in him. He was in accord with 
his generation. He had a clear perception that the 
toiling millions are not a class in the community, but 
are the community. He knew and felt that govern- 
ment should exist only for the benefit of the gov- 
erned; that the strong are strong only as they may 
aid the weak ; that the rich are rightfully rich only 
that they may so combine and direct the labor of the 
poor as to make labor more profitable to the laborer. 
He did not comprehend these truths as they are dem- 
onstrated by Jefferson and Spencer, but he had an in- 
tuitive and instinctive perception of them. And in 
his most autocratic moments, he really thought that he 
was fighting the battle of the people and doing their 
will while baffling the purposes of their representa- 
tives. If he had been a man of knowledge as well as 
force, he would have taken the part of the people 
more effectually, and left to his successors an in- 
creased power of doing gpod, instead of better facili- 
ties for doing harm. He appears always to have 
meant well. But his ignorance of law, history, poli- 
tics, science, of every thing which he who governs a 
country ought to know was extreme. Mr. Trist re- 
members hearing a member of the General's family 
say, that General Jackson did not believe the world 
was round. His ignorance was as a wall round about 
him— high, impenetrable. He was imprisoned in his 
ignorance, and sometimes raged round his little, dim 
inclosure like a tiger in his den." — James Parton, 
Life of Andrew Jackson^ Vol. HI, pp. 698, 699. 



First Inaugural Address.* 

(March 4, 1829.) 

Fellozv-Citijscns: About to undertake the arduous duties 
that I have been appointed to perform by the choice of a 
free people, I avail myself of this customary and solemn 
occasion to express the gratitude which their confidence 
inspires and to acknov^ledge the accountability which my 
situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests 
convinces me that no thanks can be adequate to the honor 
they have conferred, it admonishes me that the best return 
I can make is the zealous dedication of my humble abilities 
to their service and their good. 

As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will 
devolve on me for a stated period to execute the laws of the 
United States, to superintend their foreign and their con- 
federate relations, to manage their revenue, to command 
their forces, and, by communication to the Legislature, to 
watch over and promote their interests generally. And 
the principles of action by which I shall endeavor to accom- 
plish this circle of duties it is now proper for me briefly to 
explain. 

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep stead- 
ily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the 
Executive power, trusting thereby to discharge the func- 
tions of my office without transcending its authority. 
With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace 
and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and 

* This address is general, vague and non-committal, and contains 
nothing of importance definitive of Jacksonian policy. The refer- 
ences to "reform" somewhat alarmed office-holders, but were not 
interpreted even by the Federalists as notice of the coming proscrip- 
tioa [Ed.] 

3« 



32 Andrew Jackson 

in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise 
to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation 
rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people. 

In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in 
regard to the rights of the separate States I hope to be 
animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members 
of our Union, taking care not to confound the powers they 
have reserved to themselves with those they have granted 
to the Confederacy. 

The management of the public revenue — that searching 
operation in all governments — is among the most delicate 
and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand 
no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Under 
every aspect in which it can be considered it would appear 
that advantage must result from the observance of a strict 
and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more 
anxiously both because it will facilitate the extinguishment 
of the national debt, the unnecessary duration of which is 
incompatible with real independence, and because it will 
counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy 
which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government 
is but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the 
attainment of this desirable end are to be found in the 
regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress for the 
specific appropriation of public money and the prompt 
accountability of public officers. 

With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of 
impost with a view to revenue^ it would seem to me that the 
spirit of equity, caution, and compromise in which the Con- 
stitution was formed requires that the great interests of 
agriculture, commerce, and manufactures should be equally 
favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule 
should consist in the peculiar encouragement of any prod- 
ucts of either of them that may be found essential to our 
national independence. 

Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so 
far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the 
Federal Government, are of high importance. 



First Inaugural Address 33 

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free gov- 
ernments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our 
present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of 
political experience which teaches that the military should 
be held subordinate to the civil power. The gradual 
increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant 
climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the 
preservation of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the 
introduction of progressive improvements in the discipline 
and science of both branches of our military service are so 
plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be excused for 
omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their 
importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national 
militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and 
population must render us invincible. As long as our Gov- 
ernment is administered for the good of the people, and is 
regulated by their will ; as long as it secures to us the rights 
of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the 
press, it will be worth defending ; and so long as it is worth 
defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an impen- 
etrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications 
we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, 
possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a 
foreign foe. To any just system, therefore, calculated to 
strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I shall 
cheerfully lend all the aid in my power. 

It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe 
toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and lib- 
eral policy, and to give that humane and considerate atten- 
tion to their rights and their wants which is consistent with 
the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people. 

The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes 
on the list of Executive duties, in characters too legible to 
be overlooked, the task of reform, which will require par- 
ticularly the correction of those abuses that have brought 
the patronage of the Federal Government into conflict with 
the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those 
causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appoint- 



34 Andrew Jackson 



ment and have placed or continued power in unfaithful or 
incompetent hands. 

In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I 
/ shall endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents 
will insure in their respective stations able and faithful 
cooperation, depending for the advancement of the public 
service more on the integrity and zeal of the public officers 
than on their numbers. 

A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications 
will teach me to look with reverence to the examples of 
public virtue left by my illustrious predecessors, and with 
veneration to the lights that flow from the mind that 
founded and the mind that reformed our system. The 
same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid 
from the coordinate branches of the Government, and for 
the indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. 
And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose 
providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and 
has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, en- 
courages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He 
will continue to make our beloved country the object of 
His divine care and gracious benediction. 



First Annual Message/ 



(December 8, 1829.) 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives: It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings 
to you on the occasion of your assembling at the seat of 
Government to enter upon the important duties to which 
you have been called by the voice of our countrymen. The 
task devolves on me, under a provision of the Constitution, 
to present to you, as the Federal Legislature of twenty-four 
sovereign States and 12,000,000 happy people, a view of 
our affairs, and to propose such measures as in the dis- 
charge of my official functions have suggested themselves 
as necessary to promote the objects of our Union. 

In communicating with you for the first time it is to me 
a source of unfeigned satisfaction, calling for mutual grat- 
ulation and devout thanks to a benign Providence, that we 
are at peace with all mankind, and that our country exhib- 

* Benton, Jackson's most able and ardent defender, remarks on 
this message: "That it was anxiously looked for, and did not disap- 
point the public expectation. It was strongly democratic, and con- 
tained many recommendations of a nature to simplify and purify the 
working of the Government, and to carry it back to the times of Mr. 
Jefferson — to promote its economy and efficiency, and to maintain the 
rights of the people, and of the States in its administration." Thirty 
Years' View, I., p. 121. 

" In a word, it was a message of the old republican school, in which 
President Jackson had been bred, and from which he never departed." 
Id., p. 124. 

Jackson's attack on the Bank of the United States, in this message, 
some seven years before the expiration of its charter, may be said to 
have astonished the country. Times were good, the people prospering, 
the currency sounder than ever before. The President here gave warn- 
ing of relentless war against the Bank ; his attitude was partisan or patri- 
otic as one interprets his policy and its effects on the country. [Ed.] 

35 



36 Andrew Jackson 

its the most cheering evidence of general welfare and pro- 
gressive improvement. Turning our eyes to other nations, 
our great desire is to see our brethren of the human race 
secured in the blessings enjoyed by ourselves, and advanc- 
ing in knowledge, in freedom, and in social happiness. 

Our foreign relations, although in their general char- 
acter pacific and friendly, present subjects of difference 
between us and other powers of deep interest as well to the 
country at large as to many of our citizens. To effect an 
adjustment of these shall continue to be the object of my 
earnest endeavors, and notwithstanding the difficulties of 
the task, I do not allow myself to apprehend unfavorable 
results. Blessed as our country is with everything which 
constitutes national strength, she is fully adequate to the 
maintenance of all her interests. In discharging the 
responsible trust confided to the Executive in this respect 
it is my settled purpose to -ask nothing that is not clearly 
right and to submit to nothing that is wrong; and I flatter 
myself that, supported by the other branches of the Gov- 
ernment and by the intelligence and patriotism of the 
people, we shall be able, under the protection of Providence, 
to cause all our just rights to be respected. 

Of the unsettled matters between the United States and 
other powers, the most prominent are those which have for 
years Ijeen the subject of negotiation with England, France, 
and Spain. The late periods at which our ministers to 
those Governments left the United States render it impos- 
sible at this early day to inform you of what has been done 
on the subjects with which they have been respectively 
charged. Relying upon the justice of our views in relation 
to the points committed to negotiation and the reciprocal 
good feeling which characterizes our intercourse with those 
nations, we have the best reason to hope for a satisfactory 
adjustment of existing differences. 

With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace and war, 
we may look forward to years of peaceful, honorable, and 
elevated competition. Everything in the condition and his- 
tory of the two nations is calculated to inspire sentiments of 



First Annual Message 37 

mutual respect and to carry conviction to the minds of both 
that it is their poHcy to preserve the most cordial relations. 
Such are my own views, and it is not to be doubted that 
such are also the prevailing sentiments of our constituents. 
Although neither time nor opportunity has been afforded 
for a full development of the policy which the present cab- 
inet of Great Britain designs to pursue toward this country, 
I indulge the hope that it will be of a just and pacific char- 
acter ; and if this anticipation be realized we may look with 
confidence to a speedy and acceptable adjustment of our 
affairs. 

Under the convention for regulating the reference to 
arbitration of the disputed points of boundary under the 
fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, the proceedings have 
hitherto been conducted in that spirit of candor and lib- 
erality which ought ever to characterize the acts of sov- 
ereign States seeking to adjust by the most unexceptionable 
means important and delicate subjects of contention. The 
first statements of the parties have been exchanged, and 
the final replication on our parts is in a course of prepara- 
tion. This subject has received the attention demanded by 
its great and peculiar importance to a patriotic member of 
this Confederacy. The exposition of our rights already 
made is such as, from the high reputation of the commis- 
sioners by whom it has been prepared, we had a right to 
expect. Our interests at the Court of the Sovereign who 
has evinced his friendly disposition by assuming the deli- 
cate task of arbitration have been committed to a citizen of 
the State of Maine, whose character, talents, and intimate 
acquaintance with the subject eminently qualify him for so 
responsible a trust. With full confidence in the justice of 
our cause and in the probity, intelligence, and uncom- 
promising independence of the illustrious arbitrator, we 
can have nothing to apprehend from the result. 

From France, our ancient ally, we have a right to expect 
that justice which becomes the sovereign of a powerful, 
intelligent, and magnanimous people. The beneficial effects 
produced by the commercial convention of 1822, limited as 



3 8 Andrew Jackson 

are its provisions, are too obvious not to make a salutary 
impression upon the minds of those who are charged with 
the administration of her Government. Should this result 
induce a disposition to embrace to their full extent the 
wholesome principles which constitute our commercial pol- 
icy, our minister to that Court will be found instructed to 
cherish such a disposition and to aid in conducting it to use- 
ful practical conclusions. The claims of our citizens for 
depredations upon their property, long since committed 
under the authority, and in many instances by the express 
direction, of the then existing Government of France, 
remain unsatisfied, and must therefore continue to furnish 
a subject of unpleasant discussion and possible collision 
between the two Governments. I cherish, however, a lively 
hope, founded as well on the validity of those claims and 
the established policy of all enlightened governments as on 
the known integrity of the French Monarch, that the 
injurious delays of the past will find redress in the equity 
of the future. Our minister has been instructed to press 
these demands on the French Government with all the 
earnestness which is called for by their importance and 
irrefutable justice, and in a spirit that will evince the 
respect which is due to the feelings of those from whom 
the satisfaction is required. 

Our minister recently appointed to Spain has been au- 
thorized to assist in removing evils alike injurious to both 
countries, either by concluding a commercial convention 
upon liberal and reciprocal terms or by urging the accept- 
ance in their full extent of the mutually beneficial pro- 
visions of our navigation acts. He has also been instructed 
to make a further appeal to the justice of Spain, in behalf 
of our citizens, for indemnity for spoliations upon our com- 
merce committed under her authority — an appeal which the 
pacific and liberal course observed on our part and a due 
confidence in the honor of that Government authorize us 
to expect will not be made in vain. 

With other European powers our intercourse is on the 
most friendly footing. In Russia, placed by her territorial 



First Annual Message 39 

limits, extensive population, and great power high in the 
rank of nations, the United States have always found a 
steadfast friend. Although her recent invasion of Turkey 
awakened a lively sympathy for those who were exposed to 
the desolations of war, we can not but anticipate that the 
result will prove favorable to the cause of civilization and 
to the progress of human happiness. The treaty of peace 
between these powers having been ratified, we can not be 
insensible to the great benefit to be derived by the com- 
merce of the United States from unlocking the navigation 
of the Black Sea, a free passage into which is secured to 
all merchant vessels bound to ports of Russia under a flag 
at peace with the Porte. This advantage, enjoyed upon 
conditions by most of the powers of Europe, has hitherto 
been withheld from us. During the past summer an ante- 
cedent but unsuccessful attempt to obtain it was renewed 
under circumstances which promised the most favorable 
results. Although these r&sults have fortunately been thus 
in part attained, further facilities to the enjoyment of this 
new field for the enterprise of our citizens are, in my opin- 
ion, sufficiently desirable to insure to them our most zeal- 
ous attention. 

Our trade with Austria, although of secondary impor- 
tance, has been gradually increasing, and is now so 
extended as to deserve the fostering care of the Govern- 
ment. A negotiation, commenced and nearly completed 
with that power by the late Administration, has been con- 
summated by a treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce, 
which will be laid before the Senate. 

During the recess of Congress our diplomatic relations 
with Portugal have been resumed. The peculiar state of 
things in that country caused a suspension of the recog- 
nition of the representative who presented himself until 
an opportunity was had to obtain from our official organ 
there information regarding the actual and, as far as prac- 
ticable, prospective condition of the authority by which 
the representative in question was appointed. This in- 
formation being received, the application of the estab- 



40 Andrew Jackson 

lished rule of our Government in like cases was no longer 
withheld. 

Considerable advances have been made during the pres- 
ent year in the adjustment of claims of our citizens upon 
Denmark for spoliations, but all that we have a right to 
demand from that Government in their behalf has not yet 
been conceded. From the liberal footing, however, upon 
which this subject has, with the approbation of the claim- 
ants, been placed by the Government, together with the uni- 
formly just and friendly disposition which has been evinced 
by His Danish Majesty, there is a reasonable ground to 
hope that this single subject of difference will speedily be 
removed. 

Our relations with the Barbary Powers continue as they 
have long been, of the most favorable character. The 
policy of keeping an adequate force in the Mediterranean, 
as security for the continuance of this tranquillity, will be 
persevered in, as well as a similar one for the protection of 
our commerce and fisheries in the Pacific. 

The southern Republics of our own hemisphere have not 
yet realized all the advantages for which they have been so 
long struggling. We trust, however, that the day is not 
distant when the restoration of peace and internal quiet, 
under permanent systems of government, securing the lib- 
erty and promoting the happiness of the citizens, will crown 
with complete success their long and arduous efforts in the 
cause of self-government, and enable us to salute them as 
friendly rivals in all that is truly great and glorious. 

The recent invasion of Mexico, and the effect thereby 
produced upon her domestic policy, must have a controlling 
influence upon the great question of South American 
emancipation. We have seen the fell spirit of civil dis- 
sension rebuked, and perhaps forever stifled, in that Repub- 
lic by the love of independence. If it be true, as appear- 
ances strongly indicate, that the spirit of independence is 
the master spirit, and if a corresponding sentiment pre- 
vails in the other States, this devotion to liberty can not be 
without a proper effect upon the counsels of the mother 



First Annual Message 41 

country. The adoption by Spain of a pacific policy toward 
her former colonies — an event consoling to humanity, and 
a blessing to the world, in which she herself can not fail 
largely to participate — may be most reasonably expected. 

The claims of our citizens upon the South American Gov- 
ernments generally are in a train of settlement, while the 
principal part of those upon Brazil have been adjusted, and 
a decree in council ordering bonds to be issued by the min- 
ister of the treasury for their amount has received the 
sanction of His Imperial Majesty. This event, together 
with the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty nego- 
tiated and concluded in 1828, happily terminates all serious 
causes of difference with that power. 

Measures have been taken to place our commercial rela- 
tions with Peru upon a better footing than that upon which 
they have hitherto rested, and if met by a proper dispo- 
sition on the part of that Government important benefits 
may be secured to both countries. 

Deeply interested as we are in the prosperity of our sister 
Republics, and more particularly in that of our immediate 
neighbor, it would be most gratifying to me were I per- 
mitted to say that the treatment which we have received at 
her hands has been as universally friendly as the early and 
constant solicitude manifested by the United States for her 
success gave us a right to expect. But it becomes my duty 
to inform you that prejudices long indulged by a portion of 
the inhabitants of Mexico against the envoy extraordinary 
and minister plenipotentiary of the United States have had 
an unfortunate influence upon the affairs of the two coun- 
tries, and have diminished that usefulness to his own which 
was justly to be expected from his talents and zeal. To 
this cause, in a great degree, is to be imputed the failure 
of several measures equally interesting to both parties, but 
particularly that of the Mexican Government to ratify a 
treaty negotiated and concluded in its own capital and under 
its own eye. Under these circumstances it appeared expe- 
dient to give to Mr. Poinsett the option either to return or 
hot, as in his judgment the interest of his country might 



42 Andrew Jackson 

require, and instructions to that end were prepared; but 
before they could be dispatched a communication was 
received from the Government of Mexico, through its 
charge d'affaires here, requesting the recall of our minister. 
This was promptly complied with, and a representative of a 
rank corresponding with that of the Mexican diplomatic 
agent near this Government was appointed. Our conduct 
toward that Republic has been uniformly of the most 
friendly character, and having thus removed the only 
alleged obstacle to harmonious intercourse, I can not but 
hope that an advantageous change will occur in our affairs. 

In justice to Mr. Poinsett it is proper to say that my 
immediate compliance with the application for his recall 
and the appointment of a successor are not to be ascribed 
to any evidence that the imputation of an improper inter- 
ference by him in the local politics of Mexico was well 
founded, nor to a want of confidence in his talents or integ- 
rity, and to add that the truth of that charge has never been 
affirmed by the federal Government of Mexico in its com- 
munications with this. 

I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties to bring 
to your attention the propriety of amending that part of 
our Constitution which relates to the election of President 
and Vice-President. Our system of government was by 
its framers deemed an experiment, and they therefore con- 
sistently provided a mode of remedying its defects. 

To the people belongs the rights of electing their Chief 
Magistrate; it was never designed that their choice should 
in any case be defeated, either by the intervention of elec- 
toral colleges or by the agency confided, under certain con- 
tingencies, to the Plouse of Representatives. Experience 
proves that in proportion as agents to execute the will of 
the people are multiplied there is danger of their wishes 
being frustrated. Some may be unfaithful ; all are liable 
to err. So far, therefore, as the people can with conven- 
ience speak, it is safer for them to express their own will. 

The number of aspirants to the Presidency and the 
diversity of the interests which may influence their claims 



First Annual Message 43 

leave little reason to expect a choice in the first instance, and 
in that event the election must devolve on the House of 
Representatives, where it is obvious the v^ill of the people 
may not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained, may not 
be regarded. From the mode of voting by States the choice 
is to be made by 24 votes, and it may often occur that one 
of these will be controlled by an individual Representative. 
Honors and offices are at the disposal of the successful can- 
didate. Repeated ballotings may make it apparent that a 
single individual holds the cast in his hand. May he not be 
tempted to name his reward? But even without corruption, 
supposing the probity of the Representative to be proof 
against the powerful motives by which it may be assailed, 
the will of the people is still constantly liable to be misrepre- 
sented. One may err from ignorance of the wishes of his 
constituents; another from a conviction that it is his duty 
to be governed by his own judgment of the fitness of the 
candidates; finally, although all were inflexibly honest, all 
accurately informed of the wishes of their constituents, yet 
under the present mode of election a minority may often 
elect a President, and when this happens it may reasonably 
be expected that efforts will be made on the part of the 
majority to rectify this injurious operation of their insti- 
tutions. But although no evil of this character should 
result from such a perversion of the first principle of our 
system — that the majority is to govern — it must be very 
certain that a President elected by a minority can not enjoy 
the confidence necessary to the successful discharge of his 
duties. 

In this as in all other matters of public concern policy 
requires that as few impediments as possible should exist 
to the free operation of the public will. Let us, then, 
endeavor so to amend our system that the office of Chief 
Magistrate may not be conferred upon any citizen but in 
pursuance of a fair expression of the will of the majority. 

I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the 
Constitution as may remove all intermediate agency in the 
election of the President and Vice-President. The mode 



44 Andrew Jackson 

may be so regulated as to preserve to each State its present 
relative weight in the election, and a failure in the first 
attempt may be provided for by confining the second to a 
choice between the two highest candidates. In connection 
with such an amendment it would seem advisable to limit 
the service of the Chief Magistrate to a single term of 
either four or six years. If, however, it should not be 
adopted, it is worthy of consideration whether a provision 
disqualifying for office the Representatives in Congress on 
whom such an election may have devolved would not be 
proper. 

While members of Congress can be constitutionally ap- 
pointed to offices of trust and profit it will be the practice, 
even under the most conscientious adherence to duty, to 
select them for such stations as they are believed to be bet- 
ter qualified to fill than other citizens; but the purity of 
our Government would doubtless be promoted by their 
exclusion from all appointments in the gift of the President, 
in whose election they may have been officially concerned. 
The nature of the judicial office and the necessity of secur- 
ing in the Cabinet and in diplomatic stations of the highest 
rank the best talents and political experience should, per- 
haps, except these from the exclusion. 

There are, perhaps, few men who can for any great 
length of time enjoy office and power without being more 
or less under the influence of feelings unfavorable to the 
faithful discharge of their public duties. Their integrity 
may be proof against improper considerations immediately 
addressed to themselves, iDut they are apt to acquire a habit 
of looking with indifference upon the public interests and of 
tolerating conduct from which an unpracticed man would 
revolt. Office is considered as a species of property, and 
government rather as a means of promoting individual in- 
terests than as an instrument created solely for the service 
of the people. Corruption in some and in others a per- 
version of correct feelings and principles divert govern- 
ment from its legitimate ends and make it an engine for 
the support of the few at the expense of the many. The 



First Annual Message 45 

duties of all public officers are, or at least admit of being 
made, so plain and simple that men of intelligence may 
readily qualify themselves for their performance; and I can 
not but believe that more is lost by the long continuance of 
men in office than is generally to be gained by their experi- 
ence. I submit, therefore, to your consideration whether 
the efficiency of the Government would not be promoted 
and official industry and integrity better secured by a gen- 
eral extension of the law which limits appointments to 
fou r years. 

In a country where offices are created solely for the ben- 
efit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right 
to official station than another. Offices were not established ^ ^ £ 

to give support to particular men at the public expense,] No ""^ vCo^S'"*^ 
individual wrong is, therefore, done by removal, since ,;i:^7a'.->-i.xu>it^ 
neither appointment to nor continuance in office is matter w^ 
of right. The incumbent became an officer with a view to -^v^^Jr^-^e-^^-^ 
public benefits, and when these require his removal they are 
not to be sacrificed to private interests. It is the people, 
and they alone, who have a right to complain when a bad / / -2/*f * 
officer is substituted for a good one. He who is removed 
has the same means of obtaining a living that are enjoyed 
by the millions who never held office. The proposed lim- 
itation would destroy the idea of property now so gen- 
erally connected with official station, and although indi- 
vidual distress may be sometimes produced, it would, by 
promoting that rotation which constitutes a leading prin- 
ciple in the republican creed, give healthful action to the 
system. 

No very considerable change has occurred during the 
recess of Congress in the condition of either our agri- 
culture, commerce, or manufactures. The operation of the 
tariff has not proved so injurious to the two former or as 
beneficial to the latter as was anticipated. Importations of 
foreign goods have not been sensibly diminished, while 
domestic competition, under an illusive excitement, has 
increased the production much beyond the demand for 
home consumption. The consequences have been low 



46 Andrew Jackson 

prices, temporary embarrassment, and partial loss. That 
such of our manufacturing establishments as are based 
upon capital and are prudently managed will survive the 
shock and be ultimately profitable there is no good reason 
to doubt. 

To regulate its conduct so as to promote equally the 
prosperity of these three cardinal interests is one of the 
most difficult tasks of Government ; and it may be regretted 
that the complicated restrictions which now embarrass the 
intercourse of nations could not by common consent be 
abolished, and commerce allowed to flow in those channels 
to which individual enterprise, always its surest guide, 
might direct it. But we must ever expect selfish legislation 
in other nations, and are therefore compelled to adapt our 
own to their regulations in the manner best calculated to 
avoid serious injury and to harmonize the conflicting in- 
terests of our agriculture, our commerce, and our manu- 
factures. Under these impressions I invite your attention 
to the existing tariff, believing that some of its provisions 
require modification. 

The general rule to be applied in graduating the duties 
upon articles of foreign growth or manufacture is that 
which will place our own in fair competition with those of 
other countries ; and the inducements to advance even a step 
beyond this point are controlling in regard to those articles 
which are of primary necessity in time of war. When we 
reflect upon the difficulty and delicacy of this operation, it is 
important that it should never be attempted but with the 
utmost caution. Frequent legislation in regard to any 
branch of industry, affecting its value, and by which its 
capital may be transferred to new channels, must always be 
productive of hazardous speculation and loss. 

In deliberating, therefore, on these interesting subjects 
local feelings and prejudices should be merged in the pa- 
triotic determination to promote the great interests of the 
whole. All attempts to connect them with the party con- 
flicts of the day are necessarily injurious, and should be 
discountenanced. Our action upon them should be under 



First Annual Message 47 

the control of higher and purer motives. Legislation sub- 
jected to such influences can never be just, and will not 
long retain the sanction of a people whose active patriotism 
is not bounded by sectional limits nor insensible to that 
spirit of concession and forbearance which gave life to our 
political compact and still su^ains it. Discarding all cal- 
culations of political ascendency, the North, the South, the 
East, and the West should unite in diminishing any 
burthen of which either may justly complain. 

The agricultural interest of our country is so essentially 
connected with every other and so superior in importance 
to them all that it is scarcely necessary to invite to it your 
particular attention. It is principally as manufactures and 
commerce tend to increase the value of agricultural pro- 
ductions and to extend their application to the wants and 
comforts of society that they deserve the fostering care of 
Government. 

Looking forward to the period, not far distant, when a 
sinking fund will no longer be required, the duties on 
those articles of importation which can not come in compe- 
tition with our own productions are the first that should 
engage the attention of Congress in the modification of the 
tariff. Of these, tea and coffee are the most prominent. 
They enter largely into the consumption of the country, 
and have become articles of necessity to all classes. A 
reduction, therefore, of the existing duties will be felt as 
a common benefit, but like all other legislation connected 
with commerce, to be efficacious and not injurious it should 
be gradual and certain. 

The public prosperity is evinced in the increased revenue 
arising from the sales of the public lands and in the steady 
maintenance of that produced by imposts and tonnage, not- 
withstanding the additional duties imposed by the act of 
19th May, 1828, and the unusual importations in the early 
part of that year. 

The balance in the Treasury on January i, 1829, was 
$5'972,435-8i. The receipts of the current year are esti- 
mated at $24,602,230 and the expenditures for the same 



4^ Andrew Jackson 

time at $26,164,595, leaving a balance in the Treasury on 
the I St of January next of $4,410,070.81. 

There will have been paid on account of the public debt 
during the present year the sum of $12,405,005.80, redu- 
cing the whole debt of the Government on the ist of Jan- 
uary next to $48,565,406.50, including seven millions of 5 
per cent stock subscribed to the Bank of the United States. 
The payment on account of public debt made on the ist of 
July last was $8,715,462.87. It was apprehended that the 
sudden withdrawal of so large a sum from the banks in 
which it was deposited, at a time of unusual pressure in 
the money market, might cause much injury to the interests 
dependent on bank accommodations. But this evil was 
wholly averted by an early anticipation of it at the Treas- 
ury, aided by the judicious arrangements of the officers of 
the Bank of the United States. 

This state of the finances exhibits the resources of the 
nation in an aspect highly flattering to its industry and 
auspicious of the ability of Government in a very short time 
to extinguish the public debt. When this shall be done our 
population will be relieved from a considerable portion of 
its present burthens, and will find not only new motives to 
patriotic affection, but additional means for the display of 
individual enterprise. The fiscal power of the States will 
also be increased, and may be more extensively exerted in 
favor of education and other public objects, while ample 
means will remain in the Federal Government to promote 
the general weal in all the modes permitted to its authority. 

After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable 
that any adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfac- 
tory to the people of the Union will until a remote period, 
if ever, leave the Government without a considerable sur- 
plus in the Treasury beyond what may be required for its 
current service. As, then, the period approaches when the 
application of the revenue to the payment of debt will cease, 
the disposition of the surplus will present a subject for the 
serious deliberation of Congress; and it may be fortunate 
for the country that it is yet to be decided. Considered in 



First Annual Message 49 

connection with the difficulties which have heretofore at- 
tended appropriations for purposes of internal improve- 
ment, and with those which this experience tells us will 
certainly arise whenever power over such subjects may be 
exercised by the General Government, it is hoped that it 
may lead to the adoption of some plan which will reconcile 
the diversified interests of the States and strengthen the 
bonds which unite them. Every member of the Union, in 
peace and in war, will be benefited by the improvement of 
inland navigation and the construction of highways in the 
several States. Let us, then, endeavor to attain this bene- 
fit in a mode which will be satisfactory to all. That hither- 
to adopted has by many of our fellow-citizens been depre- 
cated as an infraction of the Constitution, while by others 
it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has been 
employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative 
councils. 

To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, 
just, and federal disposition which could be made of the 
surplus revenue would be its apportionment among the sev- 
eral States according to their ratio of representation, and 
should this measure not be found warranted by the Con- 
stitution that it would be expedient to propose to the States 
an amendment authorizing it. I regard an appeal to the 
source of power in cases of real doubt, and where its exer- 
cise is deemed indispensable to the general welfare, as 
among the most sacred of all our obligations. Upon this 
country more than any other has, in the providence of God, 
been cast the special guardianship of the great principle of 
adherence to written constitutions. If it fail here, all hope 
in regard to it will be extinguished. That this was in- 
tended to be a government of limited and specific, and not 
general, powers must be admitted by all, and it is our duty 
to preserve for it the character intended by its framers. If 
experience points out the necessity for an enlargement of 
these powers, let us apply for it to those for whose bene- 
fit it is to be exercised, and not undermine the whole sys- 
tem by a resort to overstrained constructions. The scheme 



5° Andrew Jackson 

has worked well. It has exceeded the hopes of those who 
devised it, and become an object of admiration to the 
world. We are responsible to our country and to the glo- 
rious cause of self-government for the preservation of so 
great a good. The great mass of legislation relating to our 
internal affairs was intended to be left where the Federal 
Convention found it — in the State governments. Nothing 
is clearer, in my view, than that we are chiefly indebted for 
the success of the Constitution under which we are now 
acting to the watchful and auxiliary operation of the State 
authorities. This is not the reflection of a day, but belongs 
to the most deeply rooted convictions of my mind. I can 
not, therefore, too strongly or too earnestly, for my own 
sense of its importance, warn you against all encroachments 
upon the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty. Sustained 
by its healthful and invigorating influence the federal sys- 
tem can never fall. 

In the collection of the revenue the long credits au- 
thorized on goods imported from beyond the Cape of Good 
Hope are the chief cause of the losses at present sustained. 
If these were shortened to six, nine, and twelve months, 
and warehouses provided by Government sufficient to 
receive the goods offered in deposit for security and for 
debenture, and if the right of the United States to a prior- 
ity of payment out of the estates of its insolvent debtors 
were more effectually secured, this evil would in a great 
measure be obviated. An authority to construct such 
houses is therefore, with the proposed alteration of the 
credits, recommended to your attention. 

It is worthy of notice that the laws for the collection and 
security of the revenue arising from imposts were chiefly 
framed when the rates of duties on imported goods pre- 
sented much less temptation for illicit trade than at present 
exists. There is reason to believe that these laws are in 
some respects quite insufficient for the proper security of 
the revenue and the protection of the interests of those who 
are disposed to observe them. The injurious and demoral- 
izing tendency of a successful system of smuggling is so 



First Annual Message 51 

obvious as not to require comment, and can not be too 
carefully guarded against. I therefore suggest to Congress 
the propriety of adopting efficient measures to prevent this 
evil, avoiding, however, as much as possible, every unnec- 
essary infringement of individual liberty and embarrass- 
ment of fair and lawful business. 

On an examination of the records of the Treasury I have 
been forcibly struck with the large amount of public money 
which appears to be outstanding. Of the sum thus due 
from individuals to the Government a considerable portion 
is undoubtedly desperate, and in many instances has prob- 
ably been rendered so by remissness in the agents charged 
with its collection. By proper exertions a great part, how- 
ever, may yet be recovered ; and whatever may be the por- 
tions respectively belonging to these two classes, it be- 
hooves the Government to ascertain the real state of the 
fact. This can be done only by the prompt adoption of 
judicious measures for the collection of such as may be 
made available. It is believed that a very large amount has 
been lost through the inadequacy of the means provided for 
the collection of debts due to the public, and that this inad- 
equacy lies chiefly in the want of legal skill habitually and 
constantly employed in the direction of the agents engaged 
in the service. It must, I think, be admitted that the su- 
pervisory power over suits brought by the public, which is 
now vested in an accounting officer of the Treasury, not 
selected with a view to his legal knowledge, and encum- 
bered as he is with numerous other duties, operates un- 
favorably to the public interest. 

It is important that this branch of the public service 
should be subjected to the supervision of such professional 
skill as will give it efficiency. The expense attendant upon 
such a modification of the executive department would be 
justified by the soundest principles of economy. I would 
recommend, therefore, that the duties now assigned to the 
agent of the Treasury, so far as they relate to the super- 
intendence and management of legal proceedings on the 
part of the United States, be transferred to the Attorney- 



/ 



52 Andrew Jackson 

General, and that this officer be placed on the same footing 
in all respects as the heads of the other Departments, receiv- 
ing like compensation and having such subordinate officers 
provided for his Department as may be requisite for the 
discharge of these additional duties. The professional skill 
of the Attorney-General, employed in directing the conduct 
of marshals and district attorneys, would hasten the col- 
lection of debts now in suit and hereafter save much to the 
Government. It might be further extended to the superin- 
tendence of all criminal proceedings for offenses against 
the United States. In making this transfer great care 
should be taken, however, that the power necessary to the 
Treasury Department be not impaired, one of its greatest 
securities consisting in a control over all accounts until they 
are audited or reported for suit. 

In connection with the foregoing views I would sug- 
gest also an inquiry whether the provisions of the act of 
Congress authorizing the discharge of the persons of debt- 
ors to the Government from imprisonment may not, con- 
sistently with the public interest, be extended to the re- 
lease of the debt where the conduct of the debtor is wholly 
exempt from the imputation of fraud. Some more liberal 
policy than that which now prevails in reference to this 
unfortunate class of citizens is certainly due to them, and 
would prove beneficial to the country. The continuance of 
the liability after the means to discharge it have been ex- 
hausted can only serve to dispirit the debtor ; or, where his 
resources are but partial, the want of power in the Gov- 
ernment to compromise and release the demand instigates 
to fraud as the only resource for securing a support to 
his family. He thus sinks into a state of apathy, and be- 
comes a useless drone in society or a vicious member of it, 
if not a feeling witness of the rigor and inhumanity of 
his country. All experience proves that oppressive debt 
is the bane of enterprise, and it should be the care of a re- 
public not to exert a grinding power over misfortune and 
poverty. 

Since the last session of Congress numerous frauds on 



First Annual Message 53 

the Treasury have been discovered, which I thought it my 
duty to bring under the cognizance of the United States 
court for this district by a criminal prosecution. It was 
my opinion and that of able counsel who were consulted 
that the cases came within the penalties of the act of the 
Seventeenth Congress approved 3d March, 1823, providing 
for the punishment of frauds committed on the Govern- 
ment of the United States. Either from some defect in the 
law or in its administration every effort to bring the 
accused to trial under its provisions proved ineffectual, and 
the Government was driven to the necessity of resorting to 
the vague and inadequate provisions of the common law. 
It is therefore my duty to call your attention to the laws 
which have been passed for the protection of the Treasury. 
If, indeed, there be no provision by which those who 
may be unworthily intrusted with its guardianship can be 
punished for the most flagrant violation of duty, extending 
even to the most fraudulent appropriation of the public 
funds to their own use, it is time to remedy so dangerous 
an omission; or if the law has been perverted from its 
original purposes, and criminals deserving to be punished 
under its provisions have been rescued by legal subtleties, 
it ought to be made so plain by amendatory provisions as 
to baffle the arts of perversion and accomplish the ends of 
its original enactment. 

In one of the most flagrant cases the court decided that 
the prosecution was barred by the statute which limits pros- 
ecutions for fraud to two years. In this case all the evi- 
dences of the fraud, and, indeed, all knowledge that a fraud 
had been committed, were in possession of the party accused 
until after the two years had elapsed. Surely the statute 
ought not to run in favor of any man while he retains all 
the evidences of his crime in his own possession, and least 
of all in favor of a public officer who continues to defraud 
the Treasury and conceal the transaction for the brief term 
of two years. I would therefore recommend such an alter- 
ation of the law as will give the injured party and the 
Government two years after the disclosure of the fraud or 



54 



Andrew Jackson 



after the accused is out of office to commence their prose- 
cution. 

In connection with this subject I invite the attention of 
Congress to a general and minute inquiry into the condition 
of the Government, with a view to ascertain what offices 
can be dispensed with, what expenses retrenched, and what 
improvements may be made in the organization of its 
various parts to secure the proper responsibihty of pubHc 
agents and promote efficiency and justice in all its 
operations. 

The report of the Secretary of War will make you 
acquainted with the condition of our Army, fortifications, 
arsenals, and Indian affairs. The proper discipline of the 
Army, the training and equipment of the militia, the edu- 
cation bestowed at West Point, and the accumulation of the 
means of defense applicable to the naval force will tend to 
prolong the peace we now enjoy, and which every good 
citizen, more especially those who have felt the miseries of 
even a successful warfare, must ardently desire to perpet- 
uate. 

The returns from the subordinate branches of this service 
exhibit a regularity and order highly creditable to its char- 
acter. Both officers and soldiers seem imbued with a 
proper sense of duty, and conform to the restraints of 
exact discipline with that cheerfulness which becomes the 
profession of arms. There is need, however, of further leg- 
islation to obviate the inconveniences specified in the report 
under consideration, to some of which it is proper that I 
should call your particular attention. 

The act of Congress of the 2d March, 182 1, to reduce 
and fix the military establishment, remaining unexecuted 
as it regards the command of one of the regiments of artil- 
lery, can not now be deemed a guide to the Executive in 
making the proper appointment. An explanatory act, des- 
ignating the class of officers out of which this grade is to 
be filled — whether from the military list as existing prior to 
the act of 1821 or from it as it has been fixed by that act — 
would remove this difficulty. It is also important that the 



First Annual Message S5 

laws regulating the pay and emoluments of officers gen- 
erally should be more specific than they now are. Those, 
for example, in relation to the Paymaster and Surgeon 
General assign to them an annual salary of $2,500, but are 
silent as to allowances which in certain exigencies of the 
service may be deemed indispensable to the discharge of 
their duties. This circumstance has been the authority for 
extending to them various allowances at different times 
under former Administrations, but no uniform rule has 
been observed on the subject. Similar inconveniences 
exist in other cases, in which the construction put upon the 
laws by the public accountants may operate unequally, 
produce confusion, and expose officers to the odium of 
claiming what is not their due. 

I recommend to your fostering care, as one of our safest 
means of national defense, the Military Academy. This 
institution has already exercised the happiest influence upon 
the moral and intellectual character of our Army ; and such 
of the graduates as from various causes may not pursue the 
profession of arms will be scarcely less useful as citizens. 
Their knowledge of the military art will be advantageously 
employed in the militia service, and in a measure secure to 
that class of troops the advantages which in this respect 
belong to standing armies. 

I would also suggest a review of the pension law, for the 
purpose of extending its benefits to every Revolutionary 
soldier who aided in establishing our liberties, and who is 
unable to maintain himself in comfort. These relics of 
the War of Independence have strong claims upon their 
country's gratitude and bounty. The law is defective in 
not embracing within its provisions all those who were dur- 
ing the last war disabled from supporting themselves by 
manual labor. Such an amendment would add but little 
to the amount of pensions, and is called for by the sym- 
pathies of the people as well as by considerations of sound 
policy. It will be perceived that a large addition to the 
list of pensioners has been occasioned by an order of the 
late Administration, departing materially from the rules 



5^ Andrew Jackson 

which had previously prevailed. Considering it an act of 
legislation, I suspended its operation as soon as I was 
informed that it had commenced. Before this period, how- 
ever, applications under the new regulation had been pre- 
ferred to the number of 154, of which, on the 27th March, 
the date of its revocation, 87 were admitted. For the 
amount there was neither estimate nor appropriation; and 
besides this deficiency, the regular allowances, according to 
the rules which have heretofore governed the Department, 
exceed the estimate of its late Secretary by about $50,000, 
for which an appropriation is asked. 

Your particular attention is requested to that part of 
the report of the Secretary of War which relates to the 
money held in trust for the Seneca tribe of Indians. It will 
be perceived that without legislative aid the Executive can 
not obviate the embarrassments occasioned by the dimi- 
nution of the dividends on that fund, which originally 
amounted to $100,000, and has recently been invested in 
United States 3 per cent stock. 

The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes 
within the limits of some of our States have become objects 
of much interest and importance. It has long been the 
policy of Government to introduce among them the arts of 
civilization, in the hope of gradually reclaiming them from 
a wandering life. This policy has, however, been coupled 
with another wholly incompatible with its success. Pro- 
fessing a desire to civilize and settle them, we have at the 
same time lost no opportunity to purchase their lands and 
thrust them farther into the wilderness. By this means 
they have not only been kept in a wandering state, but been 
led to look upon us as unjust and indifferent to their fate. 
Thus, though lavish in its expenditures upon the subject, 
Government has constantly defeated its own policy, and the 
Indians in general, receding farther and farther to the west, 
have retained their savage habits. A portion, however, of 
the Southern tribes, having mingled much with the whites 
and made some progress in the arts of civilized life, have 
lately attempted to erect an independent government within 



i 



First Annual Message S7 

the limits of Georgia and Alabama. These States, claim- 
ing to be the only sovereigns within their territories, 
extended their laws over the Indians, which induced the 
latter to call upon the United States for protection. 

Under these circumstances the question presented was 
whether the General Government had a right to sustain 
those people in their pretensions. The Constitution declares 
that " no new State shall be formed or erected within the 
jurisdiction of any other State " without the consent of its 
legislature. If the General Government is not permitted 
to tolerate the erection of a confederate State within the 
territory of one of the members of this Union against her 
consent, much less could it allow a foreign and independ- 
ent government to establish itself there. Georgia became 
a member of the Confederacy which eventuated in our Fed- 
eral Union as a sovereign State, always asserting her 
claim to certain limits_, which, having been originally defined 
in her colonial charter and subsequently recognized in the 
treaty of peace, she has ever since continued to enjoy, 
except as they have been circumscribed by her own volun- 
tary transfer of a portion of her territory to the United 
States in the articles of cession of 1802. Alabama was 
admitted into the Union on the same footing with the 
original States, with boundaries which were prescribed by 
Congress. There is no constitutional, conventional, or 
legal provision which allows them less power over the In- 
dians within their borders than is possessed by Maine or 
New York. Would the people of Maine permit the Penob- 
scot tribe to erect an independent government within their 
State? And unless they did would it not be the duty of 
the General Government to support them in resisting such a 
measure ? Would the people of New York permit each rem- 
nant of the Six Nations within her borders to declare itself 
an independent people under the protection of the United 
States? Could the Indians establish a separate republic on 
each of their reservations in Ohio? And if they were so 
disposed would it be the duty of this Government to pro- 
tect them in the attempt? If the principle involved in the 



58 Andrew Jackson 

obvious answer to these questions be abandoned, it will 
follow that the objects of this Government are reversed, 
and that it has become a part of its duty to aid in destroy- 
ing the States which it was established to protect. 

Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the 
Indians inhabiting parts of Georgia and Alabama that their 
attempt to establish an independent government would not 
be countenanced by the Executive of the United States, and 
advised them to emigrate beyond the Mississippi or sub- 
mit to the laws of those States. 

Our conduct toward these people is deeply interesting to 
our national character. Their present condition, contrasted 
with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal 
to our sympathies. Our ancestors found them the uncon- 
trolled possessors of these vast regions. By persuasion and 
force they have been made to retire from river to river and 
from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have 
become extinct and others have left but remnants to pre- 
serve for a while their once terrible names. Surrounded by 
whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroying 
the resources of the savage doom him to weakness and 
decay, the fate of the Mohegan, the Narragansett, and the 
Delaware is fast overtaking the Choctaw, the Cherokee, and 
the Creek. That this fate surely awaits them if they remain 
within the limits of the States does not admit a doubt. 
Humanity and national honor demand that every effort 
should be made to avert so great a calamity. It is too 
late to inquire whether it was just in the United States to 
include them and their territory within the bounds of new 
States, whose limits they could control. That step can not 
be retraced. A State can not be dismembered by Congress 
or restricted in the exercise of her constitutional power. 
But the people of those States and of every State, actuated 
by feelings of justice and a regard for our national honor, 
submit to you the interesting question whether something 
can not be done, consistently with the rights of the States, 
to preserve this much-injured race. 

As a means of effecting this end I suggest for your con- 



First Annual Message 59 

sideration the propriety of setting apart an ample district 
west of the Mississippi, and without the hmits of any 
State or Territory now formed, to be guaranteed to the 
Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it, each tribe hav- 
ing a distinct control over the portion designated for its 
use. There they may be secured in the enjoyment of gov- 
ernments of their own choice, subject to no other control 
from the United States than such as may be necessary to 
preserve peace on the frontier and between the several 
tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to teach them 
the arts of civilization, and, by promoting union and har- 
mony among them, to raise up an interesting common- 
wealth, destined to perpetuate the race and to attest the 
humanity and justice of this Government. 

This emigration should be voluntary, for it would be as 
cruel as unjust to compel the aborigines to abandon the 
graves of their fathers and seek a home in a distant land. 
But they should be distinctly informed that if they remain 
within the limits of the States they must be subject to their 
laws. In return for their obedience as individuals they will 
without doubt be protected in the enjoyment of those pos- 
sessions which they have improved by their industry. But 
it seems to me visionary to suppose that in this state of 
things claims can be allowed on tracts of country on which 
they have neither dwelt nor made improvements, merely 
because they have seen them from the mountain or passed 
them in the chase. Submitting to the laws of the States, 
and receiving, like other citizens, protection in their per- 
sons and property, they will ere long become merged in the 
mass of our population. 

The accompanying report of the Secretary of the Navy 
will make you acquainted with the condition and useful 
employment of that branch of our service during the pres- 
{ ent year. Constituting as it does the best standing security 
of this country against foreign aggression, it claims the 
especial attention of Government. In this spirit the meas- 
ures which since the termination of the last war have been 
in operation for its gradual enlargement were adopted, and 



6o Andrew Jackson 

it should continue to be cherished as the offspring of our 
national experience. It will be seen, however, that not- 
withstanding the great solicitude which has been manifested 
for the perfect organization of this arm and the liberality 
of the appropriations which that solicitude has suggested, 
this object has in many important respects not been secured. 
In time of peace we have need of no more ships of war 
than are requisite to the protection of our commerce. 
Those not wanted for this object must lay in the harbors, 
where without proper covering they rapidly decay, and 
even under the best precautions for their preservation must 
soon become useless. Such is already the case with many 
of our finest vessels, which, though unfinished, will now 
require immense sums of money to be restored to the con- 
dition in which they were when committed to their proper 
element. On this subject there can be but little doubt that 
our best policy would be to discontinue the building of 
ships of the first and second class, and look rather to the 
possession of ample materials, prepared for the emergencies 
of war, than to the number of vessels which we can float in a 
season of peace, as the index of our naval power. Judicious 
deposits in navy-yards of timber and other materials, fash- 
ioned under the hands of skillful workmen and fitted for 
prompt application to their various purposes, would enable 
us at all times to construct vessels as fast as they can be 
manned, and save the heavy expense of repairs, except to 
such vessels as must be employed in guarding our com- 
merce. The proper points for the establishment of these 
yards are indicated with so much force in the report of the 
Navy Board that in recommending it to your attention I 
deem it unnecessary to do more than express my hearty con- 
currence in their views. The yard in this District, being 
already furnished with most of the machinery necessary for 
shipbuilding, will be competent to the supply of the two 
selected by the Board as the best for the concentration of 
materials, and, from the facility and certainty of communi- 
cation between them, it will be useless to incur at those 
depots the expense of similar machinery, especially that 



First Annual Message 6i 

used in preparing the usual metallic and wooden furniture 
of vessels. 

Another improvement would be effected by dispensing 
altogether with the Navy Board as now constituted, and 
substituting in its stead bureaus similar to those already 
existing in the War Department. Each member of the 
Board, transferred to the head of a separate bureau charged 
with specific duties, would feel in its highest degree that 
wholesome responsibility which can not be divided without 
a far more than proportionate diminution of its force. 
Their valuable services would become still more so when 
separately appropriated to distinct portions of the great 
interests of the Navy, to the prosperity of which each 
would be impelled to devote himself by the strongest 
motives. Under such an arrangement every branch of 
this important service would assume a more simple and 
precise character, its efficiency would be increased, and 
scrupulous economy in the expenditure of public money 
promoted, 

I would also recommend that the Marine Corps be 
merged in the artillery or infantry, as the best mode of cur- 
ing the many defects in its organization. But little exceed- 
ing in number any of the regiments of infantry, that corps 
has, besides it lieuteant-colonel commandant, five brevet 
lieutenant-colonels, who receive the full pay and emolu- 
ments of their brevet rank, without rendering proportionate 
service. Details for marine service could as well be made 
from the artillery or infantry, there being no peculiar train- 
ing requisite for it. 

With these improvements, and such others as zealous 
watchfulness and mature consideration may suggest, there 
can be little doubt that under an energetic administration 
of its affairs the Navy may soon be made everything that 
the nation wishes it to be. Its efficiency in the suppression 
of piracy in the West India seas, and wherever its squad- 
rons have been employed in securing the interests of the 
country, will appear from the report of the Secretary, to 
which I refer you for other interesting details. Among 



62 Andrew Jackson 

these I would bespeak the attention of Congress for the 
views presented in relation to the inequality between the 
Army and Navy as to the pay of officers. No such in- 
equality should prevail between these brave defenders of 
their country, and where it does exist it is submitted to 
Congress whether it ought not to be rectified. 

The report of the Postmaster-General is referred to as 
exhibiting a highly satisfactory administration of that De- 
partment. Abuses have been reformed, increased expedi- 
tion in the transportation of the mail secured, and its rev- 
enue much improved. In a political point of view this 
Department is chiefly important as affording the means of 
diffusing knowledge. It is to the body politic what the 
veins and arteries are to the natural — conveying rapidly 
and regularly to the remotest parts of the system correct 
information of the operations of the Government, and 
bringing back to it the wishes and feelings of the people. 
Through its agency we have secured to ourselves the full 
enjoyment of the blessings of a free press. 

In this general survey of our affairs a subject of high 
importance presents itself in the present organization of the 
judiciary. An uniform operation of the Federal Govern- 
ment in the different States is certainly desirable, and exist- 
ing as they do in the Union on the basis of perfect equality, 
each State has a right to expect that the benefits conferred 
on the citizens of others should be extended to hers. The 
judicial system of the United States exists in all its effi- 
ciency in only fifteen members of the Union ; to three others 
the circuit courts, which constitute an important part of 
■that system, have been imperfectly extended, and to the 
remaining six altogether denied. The effect has been to 
withhold from the inhabitants of the latter the advantages 
afforded (by the Supreme Court) to their fellow-citizens in 
other States in the whole extent of the criminal and much 
of the civil authority of the Federal judiciary. That this 
state of things ought to be remedied, if it can be done con- 
sistently with the public welfare, is not to be doubted. 
Neither is it to be disguised that the organization of our ju- 



First Annual Message 63 

dicial system is at once a difficult and delicate task. To 
extend the circuit courts equally throughout the different 
parts of the Union, and at the same time to avoid such a 
multiplication of members as would encumber the supreme 
appellate tribunal, is the object desired. Perhaps it might 
be accomplished by dividing the circuit judges into two 
classes, and providing that the Supreme Court should be 
held by these classes alternately, the Chief Justice always 
presiding. 

If an extension of the circuit-court system to those States 
which do not now enjoy its benefits should be determined 
upon, it would of course be necessary to revise the present 
arrangement of the circuits ; and even if that system should 
not be enlarged, such a revision is recommended. 

A provision for taking the census of the people of the 
United States will, to insure the completion of that work 
within a convenient time, claim the early attention of Con- 
gress. 

The great and constant increase of business in the De- 
partment of State forced itself at an early period upon the 
attention of the Executive. Thirteen years ago it was, in 
Mr. Madison's last message to Congress, made the subject 
of an earnest recommendation, which has been repeated by 
both of his successors ; and my comparatively limited experi- 
ence has satisfied me of its justness. It has arisen from 
many causes, not the least of which is the large addition 
that has been made to the family of independent nations 
and the proportionate extension of our foreign relations. 
The remedy proposed was the establishment of a home de- 
partment — a measure which does not appear to have met 
the views of Congress on account of its supposed tendency 
to increase, gradually and imperceptibly, the already too 
strong bias of the federal system toward the exercise of 
authority not delegated to it. I am not, therefore, dis- 
posed to revive the recommendation, but am not the less 
impressed with the importance of so organizing that De- 
partment that its Secretary may devote more of his time 
to our foreign relations. Clearly satisfied that the public 



64 Andrew Jackson 

good would be promoted by some suitable provision on the 
subject, I respectfully invite your attention to it. 

The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 
1836, and its stockholders will most probably apply for a 
renewal of their privileges. In order to avoid the evils re- 
sulting from precipitancy in a measure involving such im- 
portant principles and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel 
that I can not, in justice to the parties interested, too soon 
present it to the deliberate consideration of the Legislature 
and the people. Both the constitutionality and the expe- 
diency of the law creating this bank are well questioned by 
a large portion of our fellow-citizens, and it must be ad- 
mitted by all that it has failed in the great end of establish- 
ing a uniform and sound currency. 

Under these circumstances, if such an institution is 
deemed essential to the fiscal operations of the Government, 
I submit to the wisdom of the Legislature whether a na- 
tional one, founded upon credit of the Government and its 
revenues, might not be devised which would avoid all con- 
stitutional difficulties and at the same time secure all the 
advantages to the Government and country that were ex- 
pected to result from the present bank. 

I can not close this communication without bringing to 
your view the just claim of the representatives of Com- 
modore Decatur, his officers and crew, arising from the 
recapture of the frigate Philadelphia under the heavy bat- 
teries of Tripoli. Although sensible, as a general rule, of 
the impropriety of Executive interference under a Govern- 
ment like ours, where every individual enjoys the right of 
directly petitioning Congress, yet, viewing this case as one 
of very peculiar character, I deem it my duty to recommend 
it to your favorable consideration. Besides the justice of 
this claim, as corresponding to those which have been since 
recognized and satisfied, it is the fruit of a deed of patriotic 
and chivalrous daring which infused life and confidence 
into our infant Navy and contributed as much as any ex- 
ploit in its history to elevate our national character. Pub- 
lic gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal upon it, and the 



I 



First Annual Message 



65 



meed should not be withheld which may hereafter operate 
as a stimulus to our gallant tars. 

I now recommend you, fellow-citizens, to the guidance of 
Almighty God^ with a full reliance on His merciful provi- 
dence for the maintenance of our free institutions, and with 
an earnest supplication that whatever errors it may be my 
lot to commit in discharging the arduous duties which have 
devolved on me will find a remedy in the harmony and 
wisdom of your counsels. 



Veto Messages.* 

(May 2y, 1830.) 

To the House of Representatives, Gentlemen: I have 
maturely considered the bill proposing to authorize " a sub- 
scription of stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and 
Lexington Turnpike Road Company," and now return the 
same to the House of Representatives, in which it origi- 
nated, with my objections to its passage. 

Sincerely friendly to the improvement of our country by 
means of roads and canals, I regret that any difference of 
opinion in the mode of contributing to it should exist be- 
tween us; and if in stating this difference I go beyond 
what the occasion may be deemed to call for, I hope to find 
an apology in the great importance of the subject, an un- 
feigned respect for the high source from which this branch 
of it has emanated, and an anxious wish to be correctly 
understood by my constituents in the discharge of all my 
duties. Diversity of sentiment among public functionaries 
actuated by the same general motives, on the character and 

* In this veto message Jackson repeated the constitutional doc- 
trines of Madison and Monroe as laid down by them in their veto 
messages on internal improvements. (See Madison's Veto Message, 
March 3, 181 7; Monroe's Views on the Subject of Internal Improve- 
ments, May 4, 1822.) 

Jackson struck at notorious abuses in this message and curtailed if 
he did not put an end to them. 

"Taken together," remarks Benton, "the three vetoes, and the 
three messages sustaining them (for in no instance did the House in 
which they originated pass the bills, or either of them, in opposition 
to the vetoes) may be considered as embracing all the constitutional 
reasoning upon the question; and enough to be studied by any one 
who wishes to make himself master of the subject." Thirty Years' 
View, I., p. 167. 

66 



Veto Messages 67 

tendency of particular measures, is an incident common to 
all Governments, and the more to be expected in one which, 
like ours, owes its existence to the freedom of opinion, and 
must be upheld by the same influence. Controlled as we 
thus are by a higher tribunal, before which our respective 
acts will be canvassed with the indulgence due to the im- 
perfections of our nature, and with that intelligence and un- 
biased judgment which are the true correctives of error, all 
that our responsibility demands is that the public good 
should be the measure of our views, dictating alike their 
frank expression and honest maintenance. 

In the message which was presented to Congress at the 
opening of its present session I endeavored to exhibit briefly 
my views upon the important and highly interesting subject 
to which our attention is now to be directed. I was desir- 
ous of presenting to the representatives of the several 
States in Congress assembled the inquiry whether some 
mode could not be devised which would reconcile the di- 
versity of opinion concerning the powers of this Govern- 
ment over the subject of internal improvement, and the 
manner in which these powers, if conferred by the Consti- 
tution, ought to be exercised. The act which I am called 
upon to consider has, therefore, been passed with a knowl- 
edge of my views on this question, as these are expressed in 
the message referred to. In that document the following 
suggestions will be found : 

After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable 
that any adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory 
to the people of the Union will until a remote period, if ever, 
leave the Government without a considerable surplus in the 
Treasury beyond what may be required for its current 
service. As, then, the period approaches when the applica- 
tion of the revenue to the payment of debt will cease, the 
disposition of the surplus will present a subject for the 
serious deliberation of Congress; and it may be fortunate 
for the country that it is yet to be decided. Considered in 
connection with the difficulties which have heretofore at- 
tended appropriations for purposes of internal improvement, 



68 Andrew Jackson 

and with those which this experience tells us will certainly 
arise whenever power over such subjects may be exercised 
by the General Government, it is hoped that it may lead to 
the adoption of some plan which will reconcile the diversi- 
fied interests of the States and strengthen the bonds which 
unite them. Every member of the Union, in peace and in 
war, will be benefited by the improvement of inland navi- 
gation and the construction of highways in the several 
States. Let us, then, endeavor to attain this benefit in a 
mode which will be satisfactory to all. That hitherto 
adopted has by many of our fellow-citizens been deprecated 
as an infraction of the Constitution, while by others it has 
been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has been em- 
ployed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils. 

And adverting to the constitutional power of Congress to 
make what I considered a proper disposition of the surplus 
revenue, I subjoined the following remarks : 

To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, 
just, and federal disposition which could be made of the 
surplus revenue would be its apportionment among the sev- 
eral States according to their ratio of representation, and 
should this measure not be found warranted by the Consti- 
tution that it would be expedient to propose to the States an 
amendment authorizing it. 

The constitutional power of the Federal Government to 
construct or promote works of internal improvement pre- 
sents itself in two points of view — the first as bearing upon 
the sovereignty of the States within whose limits their exe- 
cution is contemplated, if jurisdiction of the territory which 
they may occupy be claimed as necessary to their preserva- 
tion and use ; the second as asserting the simple right to ap- 
propriate money from the National Treasury in aid of such 
works when undertaken by State authority, surrendering 
the claim of jurisdiction. In the first view the question of 
power is an open one, and can be decided without the em- 
barrassments attending the other, arising from the practice 
of the Government. Although frequently and strenuously 



Veto Messages 69 

attempted, the power to this extent has never been exer- 
cised by the Government in a single instance. It does not, 
in my opinion, possess it; and no bill, therefore, which ad- 
mits it can receive my official sanction. 

But in the other view of the power the question is dif- 
ferently situated. The ground taken at an early period of 
the Government was " that whenever money has been raised 
by the general authority and is to be applied to a particular 
measure, a question arises whether the particular measure 
be within the enumerated authorities vested in Congress. 
If it be, the money requisite for it may be applied to it; if 
not, no such application can be made." The document in 
which this principle was first advanced is of deservedly high 
authority, and should be held in grateful remembrance for 
its immediate agency in rescuing the country from much 
existing abuse and for its conservative effect upon some of 
the most valuable principles of the Constitution. The sym- 
metry and purity of the Government would doubtless have 
been better preserved if this restriction of the power of ap- 
propriation could have been maintained without weakening 
its ability to fulfill the general objects of its institution, an 
effect so likely to attend its admission, notwithstanding its 
apparent fitness, that every subsequent Administration of 
the Government, embracing a period of thirty out of the 
forty-two years of its existence, has adopted a more en- 
larged construction of the power. It is not my purpose to 
detain you by a minute recital of the acts which sustain this 
assertion, but it is proper that I should notice some of the 
most prominent in order that the reflections which they 
suggest to my mind may be better understood. 

In the Administration of Mr. Jefferson we have two ex- 
amples of the exercise of the right of appropriation, which 
in the considerations that led to their adoption and in their 
effects upon the public mind have had a greater agency in 
marking the character of the power than any subsequent 
events. I allude to the payment of $15,000,000 for the pur- 
chase of Louisiana and to the original appropriation for 
the construction of the Cumberland road, the latter act de- 



70 Andrew Jackson 

riving much weight from the acquiescence and approbation 
of three of the most powerful of the original members of 
the Confederacy, expressed through their respective legis- 
latures. Although the circumstances of the latter case may- 
be such as to deprive so much of it as relates to the actual 
construction of the road of the force of an obligatory ex- 
position of the Constitution, it must, nevertheless, be ad- 
mitted that so far as the mere appropriation of money is 
concerned they present the principle in its most imposing 
aspect. No less than twenty-three different laws have been 
passed, through all the forms of the Constitution, appropri- 
ating upward of $2,500,000 out of the National Treasury 
in support of that improvement, with the approbation of 
every President of the United States, including my prede- 
cessor, since its commencement. 

Independently of the sanction given to appropriations for 
the Cumberland and other roads and objects under this 
power, the Administration of Mr. Madison was character- 
ized by an act which furnishes the strongest evidence of 
his opinion of its extent. A bill was passed through both 
Houses of Congress and presented for his approval, " set- 
ting apart and pledging certain funds for constructing roads 
and canals and improving the navigation of water courses, 
in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal 
commerce among the several States and to render more 
easy and less expensive the means and provisions for the 
common defense." Regarding the bill as asserting a power 
in the Federal Government to construct roads and canals 
within the limits of the States in which they were made, he 
objected to its passage on the ground of its unconstitu- 
tionality, declaring that the assent of the respective States 
in the mode provided by the bill could not confer the power 
in question; that the only cases in which the consent and 
cession of particular States can extend the power of Con- 
gress are those specified and provided for in the Constitu- 
tion, and superadding to these avowals his opinion that " a 
restriction of the power ' to provide for the common de- 
fense and general welfare ' to cases which are to be pro- 



Veto Messages 71 

vided for by the expenditure of money would still leave 
within the legislative power of Congress all the great and 
most important measures of Government, money being the 
ordinary and necessary means of carrying them into exe- 
cution," I have not been able to consider these declarations 
in any other point of view than as a concession that the 
right of appropriation is not limited by the power to carry 
into effect the measure for which the money is asked, as 
was formerly contended. 

The views of Mr. Monroe upon this subject were not left 
to inference. During his Administration a bill was passed 
through both Houses of Congress conferring the jurisdic- 
tion and prescribing .the mode by which the Federal Gov- 
ernment should exercise it in the case of the Cumberland 
road. He returned it with objections to its passage, and in 
assigning them took occasion to say that in the early stages 
of the Government he had inclined to the construction that 
it had no right to expend money except in the performance 
of acts authorized by the other specific grants of power, ac- 
cording to a strict construction of them, but that on further 
reflection and observation his mind had undergone a 
change ; that his opinion then was " that Congress have an 
unlimited power to raise money, and that in its appropria- 
tion they have a discretionary power, restricted only by the 
duty to appropriate it to purposes of common defense, and 
of general, not local, national, not State, benefit;" and this 
was avowed to be the governing principle through the resi- 
due of his Administration. The views of the last Admin- 
istration are of such recent date as to render a particular 
reference to them unnecessary. It is well known that the 
appropriating power, to the utmost extent which had been 
claimed for it, in relation to internal improvements was 
fully recognized and exercised by it. 

This brief reference to known facts will be sufficient to 
show the difficulty, if not the impracticability, of bringing 
back the operations of the Government to the construction 
of the Constitution set up in 1798, assuming that to be 
its true reading in relation to the power under considera- 



72 Andrew Jackson 

tion, thus giving an admonitory proof of the force of im- 
pHcation and the necessity of guarding the Constitution 
with sleepless vigilance against the authority of precedents 
which have not the sanction of its most plainly defined pow- 
ers ; for although it is the duty of all to look to that sacred 
instrument instead of the statute book, to repudiate at all 
times encroachments upon its spirit, which are too apt to 
be effected by the conjuncture of peculiar and facilitating 
circumstances, it is not less true that the public good and 
the nature of our political institutions require that indi- 
vidual differences should yield to a well-settled acqui- 
escence of the people and confederated authorities in par- 
ticular constructions of the Constitution on doubtful points. 
Not to concede this much to the spirit of our institutions 
would impair their stability and defeat the objects of the 
Constitution itself. 

The bill before me does not call for a more definite opin- 
ion upon the particular circumstances which will warrant 
appropriations of money by Congress to aid works of in- 
ternal improvement, for although the extension of the 
power to apply money beyond that of carrying into effect 
the object for which it is appropriated has, as we have 
seen, been long claimed and exercised by the Federal Gov- 
ernment, yet such grants have always been professedly 
under the control of the general principle that the works 
which might be thus aided should be " of a general, not 
local, national, not State," character. A disregard of this 
distinction would of necessity lead to the subversion of the 
federal system. That even this is an unsafe one, arbitrary 
in its nature, and liable, consequently, to great abuses, is 
too obvious to require the confirmation of experience. It 
is, however, sufficiently definite and imperative to my mind 
to forbid my approbation of any bill having the character of 
the one under consideration. I have given to its provisions 
all the reflection demanded by a just regard for the interests 
of those of our fellow-citizens who have desired its pas- 
sage, and by the respect which is due to a coordinate branch 
of the Government, but 1 am not able to view it in any 



Veto Messages 73 

other light than as a measure of purely local character ; or, 
if it can be considered national, that no further distinction 
between the appropriate duties of the General and State 
Governments need be attempted, for there can be no local 
interest that may not with equal propriety be denominated 
national. It has no connection with any established system 
of improvemets; is exclusively within the limits of a State, 
starting at a point on the Ohio River and running out 60 
miles to an interior town, and even as far as the State is 
interested conferring partial instead of general advantages. 

Considering the magnitude and importance of the power, 
and the embarrassments to which, from the very nature of 
the thing, its exercise must necessarily be subjected, the 
real friends of internal improvement ought not to be will- 
ing to confide it to accident and chance. What is properly 
national in its character or otherwise is an inquiry which is 
often extremely difficult of solution. The appropriations of 
one year for an object which is considered national may be 
rendered nugatory by the refusal of a succeeding Congress 
to continue the work on the ground that it is local. No aid 
can be derived from the intervention of corporations. The 
question regards the character of the work, not that of those 
by whom it is to be accomplished. Notwithstanding the 
union of the Government with the corporation by whose 
immediate agency any work of internal improvement is car- 
ried on, the inquiry will still remain. Is it national and 
conducive to the benefit of the whole, or local and operating 
only to the advantage of a portion of the Union ? 

But although I might not feel it to be my official duty 
to interpose the Executive veto to the passage of a bill ap- 
propriating money for the construction of such works as 
are authorized by the States and are national in their char- 
acter, I do not wish to be understood as expressing an opin- 
ion that it is expedient at this time for the General Gov- 
ernment to embark in a system of this kind ; and anxious 
that my constituents should be possessed of my views on 
this as well as on all other subjects which they have com- 
mitted to my discretion, I shall state them frankly and 



74 Andrew Jackson 

briefly. Besides many minor considerations, there are two 
prominent views of the subject which have made a deep 
impression upon my mind, which, I think, are well entitled 
to your serious attention, and will, I hope, be maturely 
weighed by the people. 

From the official communication submitted to you it ap- 
pears that if no adverse and unforeseen contingency hap- 
pens in our foreign relations and no unusual diversion be 
made of the funds set apart for the payment of the na- 
tional debt, we may look with confidence to its entire ex- 
tinguishment in the short period of four years. The ex- 
tent to which this pleasing anticipation is dependent upon 
the policy which may be pursued in relation to measures of 
the character of the one now under consideration must be 
obvious to all, and equally so that the events of the present 
session are well calculated to awaken public solicitude upon 
the subject. By the statement from the Treasury Depart- 
ment and those from the clerks of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, herewith submitted, it appears that the 
bills which have passed into laws, and those which in all 
probability will pass before the adjournment of Congress, 
anticipate appropriations which, with the ordinary expendi- 
tures for the support of Government, will exceed consider- 
ably the amount in the Treasury for the year 1830. Thus, 
whilst we are diminishing the revenue by a reduction of the 
duties on tea, coffee, and cocoa the appropriations for in- 
ternal improvements are increasing beyond the available 
means of the Treasury. And if to this calculation be 
added the amounts contained in bills which are pending be- 
fore the two Houses, it may be safely affirmed that $10,- 
000,000 would not make up the excess over the Treasury 
receipts, unless the payment of the national debt be post- 
poned and the means now pledged to that object applied 
to those enumerated in these bills. Without a well-regu- 
lated system of internal improvement this exhausting mode 
of appropriation is not likely to be avoided, and the plain 
consequence must be either a continuance of the national 
debt or a resort to additional taxes. 



Veto Messages 75 

Although many of the States, with a laudable zeal and 
under the influence of an enlightened policy, are success- 
fully applying their separate efforts to works of this char- 
acter, the desire to enlist the aid of the General Govern- 
ment in the construction of such as from their nature ought 
to devolve upon it, and to which the means of the individual 
States are inadequate, is both rational and patriotic, and 
if that desire is not gratified now it does not follow that it 
never will be. The general intelligence and public spirit of 
the American people furnish a sure guaranty that at the 
proper time this policy will be made to prevail under cir- 
cumstances more auspicious to its successful prosecution 
than those which now exist. But great as this object un- 
doubtedly is, it is not the only one which demands the 
fostering care of the Government. The preservation and 
success of the republican principle rests with us. To ele- 
vate its character and extend its influence rank among our 
most important duties, and the best means to accomplish 
this desirable end are those which will rivet the attachment 
of our citizens to the Government of their choice by the 
comparative lightness of their public burthens and by the 
attraction which the superior success of its operations will 
present to the admiration and respect of the world. 
Through the favor of an overruling and indulgent Provi- 
dence our country is blessed with general prosperity and 
our citizens exempted from the pressure of taxation, which 
other less favored portions of the human family are obliged 
to bear ; yet it is true that many of the taxes collected from 
our citizens through the medium of imposts have for a 
considerable period been onerous. In many particulars 
these taxes have borne severely upon the laboring and less 
prosperous classes of the community, being imposed on the 
necessaries of life, and this, too, in cases where the burthen 
was not relieved by the consciousness that it would ulti- 
mately contribute to make us independent of foreign na- 
tions for articles of prime necessity by the encouragement 
of their growth and manufacture at home. They have been 
cheerfully borne because they were thought to be necessary 



76 Andrew Jackson 

to the support of Government and the payment of the debts 
unavoidably incurred in the acquisition and maintenance of 
our national rights and liberties. But have v^^e a right to 
calculate on the same cheerful acquiescence when it is 
known that the necessity for their continuance would cease 
were it not for irregular, improvident, and unequal appro- 
priations of the public funds ? Will not the people demand, 
as they have a right to do, such a prudent system of ex- 
penditure as will pay the debts of the Union and authorize 
the reduction of every tax to as low a point as the wise ob- 
servance of the necessity to protect that portion of our man- 
ufactures and labor whose prosperity is essential to our 
national safety and independence will allow ? When the na- 
tional debt is paid, the duties upon those articles which we 
do not raise may be repealed with safety, and still leave, I 
trust, without oppression to any section of the country, an 
accumulating surplus fund, which may be beneficially ap- 
plied to some well-digested system of improvement. 

Under this view the question as to the manner in which 
the Federal Government can or ought to embark in the 
construction of roads and canals, and the extent to which it 
may impose burthens on the people for these purposes, may 
be presented on its own merits, free of all disguise and of 
every embarrassment, except such as may arise from the 
Constitution itself. Assuming these suggestions to be 
correct, will not our constituents require the observance of 
a course by which they can be effected? Ought they not 
to require it? With the best disposition to aid, as far as 
I can conscientiously, in furtherance of works of internal 
improvement, my opinion is that the soundest views of na- 
tional policy at this time point to such a course. Besides 
the avoidance of an evil influence upon the local concerns 
of the country, how solid is the advantage which the Gov- 
ernment will reap from it in the elevation of its character! 
How gratifying the effect of presenting to the world the 
sublime spectacle of a Republic of more than 12,000,000 
happy people, in the fifty-fourth year of her existence, 
after having passed through two protracted wars — the one 



Veto Messages ^^ 

for the acquisition and the other for the maintenance of 
Hberty — free from debt and with all her immense resources 
unfettered! What a salutary influence would not such an 
exhibition exercise upon the cause of liberal principles and 
free government throughout the world! Would we not 
ourselves find in its effect an additional guaranty that our 
political institutions will be transmitted to the most remote 
posterity without decay? A course of policy destined to 
witness events like those can not be benefited by a legisla- 
tion which tolerates a scramble for appropriations that have 
no relation to any general system of improvement, and 
whose good effects must of necessity be very limited. In 
the best view of these appropriations, the abuses to which 
they lead far exceed the good which they are capable of 
promoting. They may be resorted to as artful expedients to 
shift upon the Government the losses of unsuccessful pri- 
vate speculation, and thus, by ministering to personal am- 
bition and self-aggrandizement, tend to sap the foundations 
of public virtue and taint the administration of the Govern- 
ment with a demoralizing influence. 

In the other view of the subject, and the only remaining 
one which it is my intention to present at this time, is in- 
volved the expediency of embarking in a system of internal 
improvement without a previous amendment of the Con- 
stitution explaining and defining the precise powers of the 
Federal Government over it. Assuming the right to ap- 
propriate money to aid in the construction of national 
works to be warranted by the cotemporaneous and con- 
tinued exposition of the Constitution, its insufficiency for 
the successful prosecution of them must be admitted by 
all candid minds. If we look to usage to define the extent 
of the right, that will be found so variant and embracing 
so much that has been overruled as to involve the whole 
subject in great uncertainty and to render the execution of 
our respective duties in relation to it replete with difficulty 
and embarrassment. It is in regard to such works and the 
acquisition of additional territory that the practice ob- 
tained its first footing. In most, if not all, other disputed 



7^ Andrew Jackson 

questions of appropriation the construction of the Constitu- 
tion may be regarded as unsettled if the right to apply 
money in the enumerated cases is placed on the ground of 
usage. 

This subject has been one of much, and, I may add, pain- 
ful, reflection to me. It has bearings that are well calcu- 
lated to exert a powerful influence upon our hitherto pros- 
perous system of government, and which, on some accounts, 
may even excite despondency in the breast of an Ameri- 
can citizen. I will not detain you with professions of zeal 
in the cause of internal improvements. If to be their friend 
is a virtue which deserves commendation, our country is 
blessed with an abundance of it, for I do not suppose there 
is an intelligent citizen who does not wish to see them 
flourish. But though all are their friends, but few, I trust, 
are unmindful of the means by which they should be pro- 
moted; none certainly are so degenerate as to desire their 
success at the cost of that sacred instrument with the pres- 
ervation of which is indissolubly bound our country's 
hopes. If different impressions are entertained in any 
quarter; if it is expected that the people of this country, 
reckless of their constitutional obligations, will prefer their 
local interest to the principles of the Union, such expecta- 
tions will in the end be disappointed ; or if it be not so, then 
indeed has the world but little to hope from the example of 
free government. When an honest observance of consti- 
tutional compacts can not be obtained from communities 
like ours, it need not be anticipated elsewhere, and the 
cause in which there has been so much martyrdom, and 
from which so much was expected by the friends of liberty, 
may be abandoned, and the degrading truth that man is 
unfit for self-government admitted. And this will be the 
case if expediency be made a rule of construction in inter- 
preting the Constitution. Power in no government could 
desire a better shield for the insidious advances which it is 
ever ready to make upon the checks that are designed to 
restrain its action. 

But I do not entertain such gloomy apprehensions. If 



Veto Messages 79 

it be the wish of the people that the construction of roads 
and canals should be conducted by the Federal Government, 
it is not only highly expedient, but indispensably necessary, 
that a previous amendment of the Constitution, delegating 
the necessary power and defining and restricting its exer- 
cise with reference to the sovereignty of the States, should 
be made. Without it nothing extensively useful can be ef- 
fected. The right to exercise as much jurisdiction as is nec- 
essary to preserve the works and to raise funds by the col- 
lection of tolls to keep them in repair can not be dispensed 
with. The Cumberland road should be an instructive ad- 
monition of the consequences of acting without this right. 
Year after year contests are witnessed, growing out of ef- 
forts to obtain the necessary appropriations for completing 
and repairing this useful work. Whilst one Congress may 
claim and exercise the power, a succeeding one may deny 
it; and this fluctuation of opinion must be unavoidably 
fatal to any scheme which from its extent would promote 
the interests and elevate the character of the country. The 
experience of the past has shown that the opinion of Con- 
gress is subject to such fluctuations. 

If it be the desire of the people that the agency of the 
Federal Government should be confined to the appropria- 
tion of money in aid of such undertakings, in virtue of 
State authorities, then the occasion, the manner, and the 
extent of the appropriations should be made the subject of 
constitutional regulation. This is the more necessary in 
order that they may be equitable among the several States, 
promote harmony between different sections of the Union 
and their representatives, preserve other parts of the Con- 
stitution from being undermined by the exercise of doubt- 
ful powers or the too great extension of those which are 
not so, and protect the whole subject against the deleterious 
influence of combinations to carry by concert measures 
which, considered by themselves, might meet but little 
countenance. 

That a constitutional adjustment of this power upon 
equitable principles is in the highest degree desirable can 



8o Andrew Jackson 

scarcely be doubted, nor can it fail to be promoted by every 
sincere friend to the success of our political institutions. 
In no government are appeals to the source of power in 
cases of real doubt more suitable than in ours. No good 
motive can be assigned for the exercise of power by the 
constituted authorities, while those for whose benefit it is to 
be exercised have not conferred it and may not be willing 
to confer it. It would seem to me that an honest applica- 
tion of the conceded powers of the General Government to 
the advancement of the common weal presents a sufficient 
scope to satisfy a reasonable ambition. The difficulty and 
supposed impracticability of obtaining an amendment of the 
Constitution in this respect is, I firmly believe, in a great 
degree unfounded. The time has never yet been when the 
patriotism and intelligence of the American people were 
not fully equal to the greatest exigency, and it never will 
when the subject calling forth their interposition is plainly 
presented to them. To do so with the questions involved in 
this bill, and to urge them to an early, zealous, and full 
consideration of their deep importance, is, in my estimation, 
among the highest of our duties. 

A supposed connection between appropriations for in- 
ternal improvement and the system of protecting duties, 
growing out of the anxieties of those more immediately 
interested in their success, has given rise to suggestions 
which it is proper I should notice on this occasion. My 
opinions on these subjects have never been concealed from 
those who had a right to know them. Those which I have 
entertained on the latter have frequently placed me in op- 
position to individuals as well as communities whose claims 
upon my friendship and gratitude are of the strongest char- 
acter, but I trust there has been nothing in my public life 
which has exposed me to the suspicion of being thought 
capable of sacrificing my views of duty to private consid- 
erations, however strong they may have been or deep the 
regrets which they are capable of exciting. 

As long as the encouragement of domestic manufactures 
is directed to national ends it shall receive from me a tern- 



Veto Messages 8i 

perate but steady support. There is no necessary connec- 
tion between it and the system of appropriations. On the 
contrary, it appears to me that the supposition of their de- 
pendence upon each other is calculated to excite the preju- 
dices of the public against both. The former is sustained 
on the grounds of its consistency with the letter and spirit 
of the Constitution, of its origin being traced to the as- 
sent of all the parties to the original compact, and of its 
having the support and approbation of a majority of the 
people, on which account it is at least entitled to a fair ex- 
periment. The suggestions to which I have alluded refer 
to a forced continuance of the national debt by means of 
large appropriations as a substitute for the security which 
the system derives from the principles on which it has 
hitherto been sustained. Such a course would certainly in- 
dicate either an unreasonable distrust of the people or a 
consciousness that the system does not possess sufficient 
soundness for its support if left to their voluntary choice 
and its own merits. Those who suppose that any policy 
thus founded can be long upheld in this country have looked 
upon its history with eyes very different from mine. This 
policy, like every other, must abide the will of the people, 
who will not be likely to allow any device, however spe- 
cious, to conceal its character and tendency. 

In presenting these opinions I have spoken with the 
freedom and candor which I thought the occasion for their 
expression called for, and now respectfully return the bill 
which has been under consideration for your further de- 
liberation and judgment. 



Second Annual Message.* 

(December 6, 1830.) 

Fellozv-Cithens of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives: The pleasure I have in congratulating you upon your 
return to your constitutional duties is much heightened by 
the satisfaction which the condition of our beloved country 
at this period justly inspires. The beneficent Author of All 
Good has granted to us during the present year health, 
peace, and plenty, and numerous causes for joy in the won- 
derful success which attends the progress of our free in- 
stitutions. 

With a population unparalleled in its increase, and pos- 
sessing a character which combines the hardihood of enter- 
prise, with the considerateness of wisdom, we see in every 
section of our happy country a steady improvement in the 
means of social intercourse, and correspondent effects upon 
the genius and laws of our extended Republic. 

The apparent exceptions to the harmony of the prospect 
are to be referred rather to inevitable diversities in the 
various interests which enter into the composition of so 
extensive a whole than to any want of attachment to the 
Union — interests whose collisions serve only in the end to 
foster the spirit of conciliation and patriotism so essential 

* This message should be read in connection with the history of the 
period — especially that of ( i ) American trade and commerce, with Great 
Britain (West Indies), Turkey; (2) French spoHations; (.0 internal 
improvements, whether by the United States or by local (State) 
government; (4) distribution of the surplus; (5) election of the Presi- 
dent and Vice-President by direct, popular vote; (6) removal of Indian 
tribes to reservations (Choctaws, Chickasaws); (7) Georgia and other 
States, and Indian lands within their borders; (8) public revenue; 
(q) making the attorney-general a cabinet officer; (10) recharter of 

the U. S. Bank. 

8s 



Second Annual Message 83 

to the preservation of that Union which I most devoutly 
hope is destined to prove imperishable. 

In the midst of these blessings we have recently wit- 
nessed changes in the condition of other nations which may 
in their consequences call for the utmost vigilance, wisdom, 
and unanimity in our councils, and the exercise of all the 
moderation and patriotism of our people. 

The important modifications of their Government, ef-\ 
fected with so much courage and wisdom by the people of 
France, afford a happy presage of their future course, and [ 
have naturally elicited from the kindred feelings of this na- 
tion that spontaneous and universal burst of applause in j 
which you have participated. In congratulating you, my 
fellow-citizens, upon an event so auspicious to the dearest 
interests of mankind I do no more than respond to the voice 
of my country, without transcending in the slightest de- 
gree that salutary maxim of the illustrious Washington 
which enjoins an abstinence from all interference with the 
internal affairs of other nations. From a people exercis- 
ing in the most unlimited degree the right of self-govern- 
ment, and enjoying, as derived from this proud characteris- 
tic, under the favor of Heaven, much of the happiness with 
which they are blessed ; a people who can point in triumph 
to their free institutions and challenge comparison with the 
fruits they bear, as well as with the moderation, intelli- 
gence, and energy with which they are administered — from 
such a people the deepest sympathy was to be expected in a 
struggle for the sacred principles of liberty, conducted in a 
spirit every way worthy of the cause, and crowned by a 
heroic moderation which has disarmed revolution of its 
terrors. Notwithstanding the strong assurances which the 
man whom we so sincerely love and justly admire has 
given to the world of the high character of the present 
King of the French, and which if sustained to the end will 
secure to him the proud appellation of Patriot King, it is 
not in his success, but in that of the great principle which 
has borne him to the throne — the paramount authority of 
the public will — that the American people rejoice. 



^4 Andrew Jackson 

I am happy to inform you that the anticipations which 
were indulged at the date of my last communication on the 
subject of our foreign affairs have been fully realized in 
several important particulars. 

An arrangement has been effected with Great Britain in 
relation to the trade between the United States and her 
West India and North American colonies which has settled 
a question that has for years afforded matter for contention 
and almost uninterrupted discussion, and has been the sub- 
ject of no less than six negotiations, in a manner which 
promises results highly favorable to the parties. 

The abstract right of Great Britain to monopolize the 
trade with her colonies or to exclude us from a participation 
therein has never been denied by the United States. But we 
have contended, and with reason, that if at any time Great 
Britain may desire the productions of this country as neces- 
sary to her colonies they must be received upon principles 
of just reciprocity, and, further, that it is making an in- 
vidious and unfriendly distinction to open her colonial ports 
to the vessels of other nations and close them against those 
of the United States. 

Antecedently to 1794 a portion of our productions was 
admitted into the colonial islands of Great Britain by par- 
ticular concessions, limited to the term of one year, but 
renewed from year to year. In the transportation of these 
productions, however, our vessels were not allowed to en- 
gage, this being a privilege reserved to British shipping, 
by which alone our produce could be taken to the islands 
and theirs brought to us in return. From Newfoundland 
and her continental possessions all our productions, as well 
as our vessels, were excluded, with occasional relaxations, 
by which, in seasons of distress, the former were admitted 
in British bottoms. 

By the treaty of 1794 she offered to concede to us for a 
limited time the right of carrying to her West India pos- 
sessions in our vessels not exceeding 70 tons burthen, and 
upon the same terms as British vessels, any productions of 
the United States which British vessels might import there- 



Second Annual Message 85 

from. But this privilege was coupled with conditions which 
are supposed to have led to its rejection by the Senate ; that 
is, that American vessels should land their return cargoes 
in the United States only, and, moreover, that they should 
during the continuance of the privilege be precluded from 
carrying molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton either 
from those islands or from the United States to any other 
part of the world. Great Britain readily consented to ex- 
punge this article from the treaty, and subsequent attempts 
to arrange the terms of the trade either by treaty stipula- 
tions or concerted legislation having failed, it has been suc- 
cessively suspended and allowed according to the varying 
legislation of the parties. 

The following are the prominent points which have in 
later years separated the two Governments: Besides a re- 
striction whereby all importations into her colonies in 
American vessels are confined to our own products carried 
hence, a restriction to which it does not appear that we have 
ever objected, a leading object on the part of Great Britain 
has been to prevent us from becoming the carriers of Brit- 
ish West India commodities to any other country than our 
own. On the part of the United States it has been con- 
tended first, that the subject should be regulated by treaty 
stipulation in preference to separate legislation ; second, that 
our productions, when imported into the colonies in ques- 
tion, should not be subject to higher duties than the produc- 
tions of the mother country or of her other colonial posses- 
sions, and, third, that our vessels should be allowed to par- 
ticipate in the circuitous trade between the United States 
and different parts of the British dominions. 

The first point, after having been for a long time stren- 
uously insisted upon by Great Britain, was given up by the 
act of Parliament of July, 1825, all vessels suffered to 
trade with the colonies being permitted to clear from thence 
with any articles which British vessels might export and 
proceed to any part of the world, Great Britain and her 
dependencies alone excepted. On our part each of the 
above points had in succession been explicitly abandoned in 



86 Andrew Jackson 

negotiations preceding that of which the result is now an- 
nounced. 

This arrangement secures to the United States every 
advantage asked by them, and which the state of the nego- 
tiation allowed us to insist upon. The trade will be placed 
upon a footing decidedly more favorable to this country 
than any on which it ever stood, and our commerce and 
navigation will enjoy in the colonial ports of Great Britain 
every privilege allowed to other nations. 

That the prosperity of the country so far as it depends 
on this trade will be greatly promoted by the new arrange- 
ment there can be no doubt. Independently of the more 
obvious advantages of an open and direct intercourse, its es- 
tablishment will be attended with other consequences of a 
higher value. That which has been carried on since the 
mutual interdict under all the expense and inconvenience 
unavoidably incident to it would have been insupportably 
onerous had it not been in a great degree lightened by con- 
certed evasions in the mode of making the transhipments at 
what are called the neutral ports. These indirections are 
inconsistent with the dignity of nations that have so many 
motives not only to cherish feelings of mutual friendship, 
but to maintain such relations as will stimulate their respec- 
tive citizens and subjects to efforts of direct, open, and 
honorable competition only, and preserve them from the in- 
fluence of seductive and vitiating circumstances. 

When your preliminary interposition was asked at the 
close of the last session, a copy of the instructions under 
which Mr. McLane has acted, together with the communi- 
cations which had at that time passed between him and the 
British Government, was laid before you. Although there 
has not been anything in the acts of the two Governments 
which requires secrecy, it was thought most proper in the 
then state of the negotiation to make that communication a 
confidential one. So soon, however, as the evidence of exe- 
cution on the part of Great Britain is received the whole 
matter shall be laid before you, when it will be seen that 
tlie apprehension which appears to have suggested one of 



Second Annual Message 87 

the provisions of the act passed at your last session, that 
the restoration of the trade in question might be connected 
with other subjects and was sought to be obtained at the 
sacrifice of the pubHc interest in other particulars, was 
wholly unfounded, and that the change which has taken 
place in the views of the British Government has been in- 
duced by considerations as honorable to both parties as I 
trust the result will prove beneficial. 

This desirable result was, it will be seen, greatly pro- 
moted by the liberal and confiding provisions of the act of 
Congress of the last session, by which our ports were upon 
the reception and annunciation by the President of the re- 
quired assurance on the part of Great Britain forthwith 
opened to her vessels before the arrangement could be car- 
ried into effect on her part, pursuing in this act of prospec- 
tive legislation a similar course to that adopted by Great 
Britain in abolishing, by her act of Parliament in 1825, a 
restriction then existing and permitting our vessels to clear 
from the colonies on their return voyages for any foreign 
country whatever before British vessels had been relieved 
from the restriction imposed by our law of returning di- 
rectly from the United States to the colonies, a restriction 
which she required and expected that we should abolish. 
Upon each occasion a limited and temporary advantage has 
been given to the opposite party, but an advantage of no 
importance in comparison with the restoration of mutual 
confidence and good feeling, and the ultimate establishment 
of the trade upon fair principles. 

It gives me unfeigned pleasure to assure you that this 
negotiation has been throughout characterized by the most 
frank and friendly spirit on the part of Great Britain, and 
concluded in a manner strongly indicative of a sincere de- 
sire to cultivate the best relations with the United States. 
To reciprocate this disposition to the fullest extent of my 
ability is a duty which I shall deem it a privilege to dis- 
charge. 

Although the result is itself the best commentary on the 
services rendered to his country by our minister at the 



88 Andrew Jackson 

Court of St. James, it would be doing violence to my feel- 
ings were I to dismiss the subject without expressing the 
very high sense I entertain of the talent and exertion which 
have been displayed by him on the occasion. 

The injury to the commerce of the United States re- 
sulting from the exclusion of our vessels from the Black 
Sea and the previous footing of mere sufferance upon which 
even the limited trade enjoyed by us with Turkey has 
hitherto been placed have for a long time been a source of 
much solicitude to this Government, and several endeavors 
have been made to obtain a better state of things. Sensible 
of the importance of the object, I felt it my duty to leave 
no proper means unemployed to acquire for our flag the 
same privileges that are enjoyed by the principal powers 
of Europe. Commissioners were consequently appointed 
to open a negotiation with the Sublime Porte. Not long 
after the member of the commission who went directly from 
the United States had sailed, the account of the treaty of 
Adrianople, by which one of the objects in view was sup- 
posed to be secured, reached this country. The Black Sea 
was understood to be opened to us. Under the supposition 
that this was the case, the additional facilities to be derived 
from the establishment of commercial regulations with the 
Porte were deemed of sufficient importance to require a 
prosecution of the negotiation as originally contemplated. 
It was therefore persevered in, and resulted in a treaty, 
which will be forthwith laid before the Senate. 

By its provisions a free passage is secured, without lim- 
itation of time, to the vessels of the United States to and 
from the Black Sea, including the navigation thereof, and 
our trade with Turkey is placed on the footing of the most 
favored nation. The latter is an arrangement wholly in- 
dependent of the treaty of Adrianople, and the former de- 
rives much value, not only from the increased security 
which under any circumstances it would give to the right in 
question, but from the fact, ascertained in the course of the 
negotiation, that by the construction put upon that treaty 
by Turkey the article relating to the passage of the Bospho- 



Second Annual Message 89 

rus is confined to nations having treaties with the Porte. 
The most friendly feeHngs appear to be entertained by the 
Sultan, and an enlightened disposition is evinced by him 
to foster the intercourse between the two countries by the 
most liberal arrangements. This disposition it will be our 
duty and interest to cherish. 

Our relations with Russia are of the most stable char- 
acter. Respect for that Empire and confidence in its friend- 
ship toward the United States have been so long entertained 
on our part and so carefully cherished by the present 
Emperor and his illustrious predecessor as to have become 
incorporated with the public sentiment of the United States. 
No means will be left unemployed on my part to promote 
these salutary feelings and those improvements of which 
the commercial intercourse between the two countries is sus- 
ceptible, and which have derived increased importance from 
our treaty with the Sublime Porte. 

I sincerely regret to inform you that our minister lately 
commissioned to that Court, on whose distinguished talents 
and great experience in public affairs I place great reliance, 
has been compelled by extreme indisposition to exercise a 
privilege which, in consideration of the extent to which his 
constitution had been impaired in the public service, was 
committed to his discretion — of leaving temporarily his 
post for the advantage of a more genial climate. 

If, as it is to be hoped, the improvement of his health 
should be such as to justify him in doing so, he will repair 
to St. Petersburg and resume the discharge of his official 
duties. I have received the most satisfactory assurances 
that in the meantime the public interest in that quarter will 
be preserved from prejudice by the intercourse which he 
will continue through the secretary of legation with the 
Russian cabinet. 

You are apprised, although the fact has not yet been offi- 
cially announced to the House of Representatives, that a 
treaty was in the month of March last concluded between 
the United States and Denmark, by which $650,000 are se- 
cured to our citizens as an indemnity for spoliations upon 



90 Andrew Jackson 

their commerce in the years 1808, 1809, 1810, and 181 1. 
This treaty was sanctioned by the Senate at the close of its 
last session, and it now becomes the duty of Congress to 
pass the necessary laws for the organization of the board 
of commissioners to distribute the indemnity among the 
claimants. It is an agreeable circumstance in this adjust- 
ment that the terms are In conformity with the previously 
ascertained views of the claimants themselves, thus remov- 
ing all pretense for a future agitation of the subject in 
any form. 
/ The negotiations in regard to such points in our for- 
eign relations as remain to be adjusted have been actively 
prosecuted during the recess. Material advances have been 
made, which are of a character to promise favorable re- 
sults. Our country, by the blessing of God, is not in a sit- 
uation to invite aggression, and it will be our fault if she 
ever becomes so. Sincerely desirous to cultivate the most 
liberal and friendly relations with all; ever ready to fulfill 
our engagements with scrupulous fidelity; limiting our de- 
mands upon others to mere justice; holding ourselves ever 
ready to do unto them as we would wish to be done by, 
and avoiding even the appearance of undue partiality to any 
nation, it appears to me impossible that a simple and sin- 
cere application of our principles to our foreign relations 
can fail to place them ultimately upon the footing on which 
it is our wish they should rest. 
'^ Of the points referred to, the most prominent are our 
claims upon France for spoliations upon our commerce; 
similar claims upon Spain, together with embarrassments 
in the commercial intercourse between the two countries 
which ought to be removed ; the conclusion of the treaty of 
commerce and navigation with Mexico, which has been so 
long in suspense, as well as the final settlement of limits be- 
tween ourselves and that Republic, and, finally, the arbitra- 
ment of the question between the United States and Great 
Britain in regard to the northeastern boundary. 

The negotiation with France has been conducted by our 
minister with zeal and ability, and in all respects to my en- 



Second Annual Message 91 

tire satisfaction. Although the prospect of a favorable 
termination was occasionally dimmed by counter preten- 
sions to which the United States could not assent, he yet had 
strong hopes of being able to arrive at a satisfactory settle- 
ment with the late Government. The negotiation has been 
renewed with the present authorities, and, sensible of the 
general and lively confidence of our citizens in the justice 
and magnanimity of regenerated France, I regret the more 
not to have it in my power yet to announce the result so 
confidently anticipated. No ground, however, inconsistent 
with this expectation has yet been taken, and I do not allow 
myself to doubt that justice will soon be done us. The 
amount of the claims, the length of time they have re- 
mained unsatisfied, and their incontrovertible justice make 
an earnest prosecution of them by this Government an ur- 
gent duty. The illegality of the seizures and confiscations 
out of which they have arisen is not disputed, and what- 
ever distinctions may have heretofore been set up in regard 
to the liability of the existing Government it is quite clear 
that such considerations can not now be interposed. 

The commercial intercourse between the two countries is 
susceptible of highly advantageous improvements, but the 
sense of this injury has had, and must continue to have, a 
very unfavorable influence upon them. From its satisfac- 
tory adjustment not only a firm and cordial friendship, but 
a progressive development of all their relations may be ex- 
pected. It is, therefore, my earnest hope that this old and 
vexatious subject of difference may be speedily removed. 

I feel that my confidence in our appeal to the motives 
which should govern a just and magnanimous nation is 
alike warranted by the character of the French people and 
by the high voucher we possess for the enlarged views and 
pure integrity of the Monarch who now presides over their 
councils, and nothing shall be wanting on my part to meet 
any manifestation of the spirit we anticipate in one of cor- 
responding frankness and liberality. 

The subjects of difference with Spain have been brought 
to the view of that Government by our minister there with 



92 Andrew Jackson 

much force and propriety, and the strongest assurances 
have been received of their early and favorable considera- 
tion. 

The steps which remained to place the matter in con- 
troversy between Great Britain and the United States fairly 
before the arbitrator have all been taken in the same lib- 
eral and friendly spirit which characterized those before an- 
nounced. Recent events have doubtless served to delay the 
decision, but our minister at the Court of the distinguished 
arbitrator has been assured that it will be made within the 
time contemplated by the treaty. 

I am particularly gratified in being able to state that a de- 
cidedly favorable, and, as I hope, lasting, change has been 
effected in our relations with the neighboring Republic of 
Mexico. The unfortunate and unfounded suspicions in re- 
gard to our disposition which it became my painful duty to 
advert to on a former occasion have been, I believe, entirely 
removed, and the Government of Mexico has been made 
to understand the real character of the wishes and views 
of this in regard to that country. The consequence is the 
establishment of friendship and mutual confidence. Such 
are the assurances I have received, and I see no cause to 
doubt their sincerity. 

I had reason to expect the conclusion of a commercial 
treaty with Mexico in season for communication on the 
present occasion. Circumstances which are not explained, 
but which I am persuaded are not the result of an indispo- 
sition on her part to enter into it, have produced the delay. 

There was reason to fear in the course of the last sum- 
mer that the harmony of our relations might be disturbed 
by the acts of certain claimants, under Mexican grants, of 
territory which had hitherto been under our jurisdiction. 
The cooperation of the representative of Mexico near this 
Government was asked on the occasion and was readily af- 
forded. Instructions and advice have been given to the 
governor of Arkansas and the officers in command in the 
adjoining Mexican State by which it is hoped the quiet of 
that frontier will be preserved until a final settlement of 



Second Annual Message 93 

the dividing line shall have removed all ground of contro- 
versy. 

The exchange of ratifications of the treaty concluded last 
year with Austria has not yet taken place. The delay has 
been occasioned by the nonarrival of the ratification of tliat 
Government within the time prescribed by the treaty. Re- 
newed authority has been asked for by the representative of 
Austria, and in the meantime the rapidly increasing trade 
and navigation between the two countries have been placed 
upon the most liberal footing of our navigation acts. 

Several alleged depredations have been recently commit- 
ted on our commerce by the national vessels of Portugal. 
They have been made the subject of immediate remon- 
strance and reclamation. I am not yet possessed of suffi- 
cient information to express a definitive opinion of their 
character, but expect soon to receive it. No proper means 
shall be omitted to obtain for our citizens all the redress 
to which they may appear to be entitled. 

Almost at the moment of the adjournment of your last 
session two bills — the one entitled " An act for making ap- 
propriations for building light-houses, light-boats, beacons, 
and monuments, placing buoys, and for improving harbors 
and directing surveys," and the other " An act to authorize 
a subscription for stock in the Louisville and Portland Ca- 
nal Company " — were submitted for my approval. It was 
not possible within the time allowed me before the close of 
the session to give to these bills the consideration which 
was due to their character and importance, and I was com- 
pelled to retain them for that purpose. I now avail myself 
of this early opportunity to return them to the Houses in 
which they respectively originated with the reasons which, 
after mature deliberation, compel me to withhold my ap- 
proval. 

The practice of defraying out of the Treasury of the 
United States the expenses incurred by the establishment 
and support of light-houses, beacons, buoys, and public 
piers within the bays, inlets, harbors, and ports of the 
United States, to render the navigation thereof safe and 



94 Andrew Jackson 

easy, is coeval with the adoption of the Constitution, and 
has been continued without interruption or dispute. 

As our foreign commerce increased and was extended 
into the interior of the country by the estabHshment of 
ports of entry and dehvery upon our navigable rivers the 
sphere of those expenditures received a corresponding en- 
largement. Light-houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and 
the removal of sand bars, sawyers, and other partial or 
temporary impediments in the navigable rivers and harbors 
which were embraced in the revenue districts from time to 
time established by law were authorized upon the same 
principle and the expense defrayed in the same manner. 
That these expenses have at times been extravagant and 
disproportionate is very probable. The circumstances un- 
der which they are incurred are well calculated to lead to 
such a result unless their application is subjected to the clos- 
est scrutiny. The local advantages arising from the dis- 
bursement of public money too frequently, it is to be feared, 
invite appropriations for objects of this character that are 
neither necessary nor useful. 

The number of light-house keepers is already very large, 
and the bill before me proposes to add to it fifty-one more 
of various descriptions. From representations upon the 
subject which are understood to be entitled to respect I am 
'induced to believe that there has not only been great im- 
providence in the past expenditures of the Government upon 
these objects, but that the security of navigation has in 
some instances been diminished by the multiplication of 
light-houses and consequent change of lights upon the coast. 
It is in this as in other respects our duty to avoid all un- 
necessary expense, as well as every increase of patronage 
not called for by the public service. But in the discharge 
of that duty in this particular it must not be forgotten that 
in relation to our foreign commerce the burden and benefit 
of protecting and accommodating it necessarily go together, 
and must do so as long as the public revenue is drawn from 
the people through the custom-house. It is indisputable 
that whatever gives facility and security to navigation 



Second Annual Message 95 

cheapens imports, and all who consume them are alike in- 
terested in whatever produces this effect. If they con- 
sume, they ought, as they now do, to pay; otherwise they 
do not pay. The consumer in the most inland State de- 
rives the same advantage from every necessary and prudent 
expenditure for the facility and security of our foreign 
commerce and navigation that he does who resides in a 
maritime State. Local expenditures have not of them- 
selves a corresponding operation. 

From a bi-U making direct appropriations for such objects 
I should not have withheld my assent. The one now re- 
turned does so in several particulars, but it also contains 
appropriations for surveys of a local character, which I 
can not approve. It gives me satisfaction to find that no 
serious inconvenience has arisen from withholding my ap- 
proval from this bill ; nor will it, I trust, be cause of regret 
that an opportunity will be thereby afforded for Congress 
to review its provisions under circumstances better calcu- 
lated for full investigation than those under which it was 
passed. 

In speaking of direct appropriations I mean not to in- 
clude a practice which has obtained to some extent, and to 
which I have in one instance, in a different capacity, given 
my assent — that of subscribing to the stock of private 
associations. Positive experience and a more thorough 
consideration of the subject have convinced me of the im- 
propriety as well as inexpediency of such investments. All 
improvements effected by the funds of the nation for general 
use should be open to the enjoyment of all our fellow-citi- 
zens, exempt from the payment of tolls or any imposition of 
that character.! The practice of thus mingling the concerns 
of the Government with those of the States or of individuals 
is inconsistent with the object of its institution and highly 
impolitic. The successful operation of the federal system 
can only be preserved by confining it to the few and simple, 
but yet important, objects for which it was designed. 

A different practice, if allowed to progress, would ulti- 
mately change the character of this Government by consoli- 



9^ Andrew Jackson 

dating into one the General and State Governments, which 
were intended to be kept forever distinct/) I can not perceive 
how bills authorizing such subscriptions can be othei^wise 
regarded than as bills for revenue, and consequently subject 
to the rule in that respect prescribed by the Constitution. If 
the interest of the Government in private companies is sub- 
ordinate to that of individuals, the management and control 
of a portion of the public funds is delegated to an authority 
unknown to the Constitution and beyond the supervision 
of our constituents; if superior, its officers and agents Vk^ill 
be constantly exposed to imputations of favoritism and op- 
pression. Direct prejudice to the public interest or an 
alienation of the affections and respect of portions of the 
people may, therefore, in addition to the general discredit 
resulting to the Government from embarking with its con- 
stituents in pecuniary stipulations, be looked for as the 
probable fruit of such associations. It is no answer to this 
objection to say that the extent of consequences like these 
can not be great from a limited and small number of in- 
vestments, because experience in other matters teaches us — 
and we are not at liberty to disregard its admonitions — 
that unless an entire stop be put to them it will soon be 
impossible to prevent their accumulation until they are 
spread over the whole country and made to embrace many 
of the private and appropriate concerns of individuals. 

The power which the General Government would acquire 
within the several States by becoming the principal stock- 
holder in corporations, controlling every canal and each 60 
or 100 miles of every important road, and giving a propor- 
tionate vote in all their elections, is almost inconceivable, 
and in my view dangerous to the liberties of the people. 

This mode of aiding such works is also in its nature de- 
ceptive, and in many cases conducive to improvidence in 
the administration of the national funds. Appropriations 
will be obtained with much greater facility and granted 
with less security to the public interest when the measure 
is thus disguised than when definite and direct expenditures 
of money are asked for. The interests of the nation would 



Second Annual Message 97 

doubtless be better served by avoiding all such indirect 
modes of aiding particular objects. In a government like 
ours more especially should all public acts be, as far as 
practicable, simple, undisguised, and intelligible, that they 
may become fit subjects for the approbation or animadver- 
sion of the people. The bill authorizing a subscription to 
the Louisville and Portland Canal affords a striking illus- 
tration of the difficulty of withholding additional appropria- 
tions for the same object when the first erroneous step has 
been taken by instituting a partnership between the Gov- 
ernment and private companies. It proposes a third sub- 
scription on the part of the United States, when each pre- 
ceding one was at the time regarded as the extent of the 
aid which Government was to render to that work; and 
the accompanying bill for light-houses, etc., contains an 
appropriation for a survey of the bed of the river, with a 
view to its improvement by removing the obstruction which 
the canal is designed to avoid. This improvement, if suc- 
cessful, would afford a free passage of the river and render 
the canal entirely useless. To such improvidence is the 
course of legislation subject in relation to internal improve- 
ments on local matters, even with the best intentions on the 
part of Congress. 

Although the motives which have influenced me in this 
matter may be already sufficiently stated, I am, nevertheless, 
induced by its importance to add a few observations of a 
general character. 

In my objections to the bills authorizing subscriptions to 
the Maysville and Rockville road companies I expressed my 
views fully in regard to the power of Congress to construct 
roads and canals within a State or to appropriate money for 
improvements of a local character. I at the same time in- 
timated my belief that the right to make appropriations for 
such as were of a national character had been so generally 
acted upon and so long acquiesced in by the Federal and 
State Governments and the constituents of each as to justify 
its exercise on the ground of continued and uninterrupted 
usage, but that it was, nevertheless, highly expedient that 



9^ Andrew Jackson 

appropriations even of that character should, with the ex- 
ception made at tlie time, be deferred until the national 
debt is paid, and that in the meanwhile some general rule 
for the action of the Government in that respect ought to 
be established. 

These suggestions were not necessary to the decision of 
the question then before me, and were, I readily admit, in- 
tended to awake the attention and draw forth the opinions 
and observations of our constituents upon a subject of the 
highest importance to their interests, and one destined to 
exert a powerful influence upon the future operations of 
our political system. I know of no tribunal to which a 
public man in this country, in a case of doubt and difficulty, 
can appeal with greater advantage or more propriety than 
the judgment of the people; and although I must neces- 
sarily in the discharge of my official duties be governed by 
the dictates of my own judgment, I have no desire to con- 
ceal my anxious wish to conform as far as I can to the views 
of those for whom I act. 

All irregular expressions of public opinion are of neces- 
sity attended with some doubt as to their accuracy, but 
making full allowances on that account I can not, I think, 
deceive myself in believing that the acts referred to, as 
w^ell as the suggestions which I allowed myself to make in 
relation to their bearing upon the future operations of the 
Government, have been approved by the great body of the 
people. That those whose immediate pecuniary interests 
are to be affected by proposed expenditures should shrink 
from the application of a rule which prefers their more gen- 
eral and remote interests to those which are personal and 
immediate is to be expected. But even such objections must 
from the nature of our population be but temporary in their 
duration, and if it were otherwise our course should be 
the same for the time is yet, I hope, far distant when those 
intrusted with power to be exercised for the good of the 
whole will consider it either honest or wise to purchase 
local favors at the sacrifice of principle and general good. 

So understanding public sentiment, and thoroughly satis- 



Second Annual Message 99 

fied that the best interests of our common country imperi- 
ously require that the course which I have recommended in 
this regard should be adopted, I have, upon the most ma- 
ture consideration, determined to pursue it. 

It is due to candor, as well as to my own feelings, that I 
should express the reluctance and anxiety which I must at 
all times experience in exercising the undoubted right of 
the Executive to withhold his assent from bills on other 
grounds than their constitutionality. That this right should 
not be exercised on slight occasions all will admit. It is 
only in matters of deep interest, when the principle involved 
may be justly regarded as next in importance to infractions 
of the Constitution itself, that such a step can be expected to 
meet with the approbation of the people. Such an occa- 
sion do I conscientiously believe the present to be. In the 
discharge of this delicate and highly responsible duty I am 
sustained by the reflection that the exercise of this power 
has been deemed consistent with the obligation of official 
duty by several of my predecessors, and by the persuasion, 
too, that whatever liberal institutions may have to fear from 
the encroachments of Executive power, which has been 
everywhere the cause of so much strife and bloody conten- 
tion, but little danger is to be apprehended from a precedent 
by which that authority denies to itself the exercise of pow- 
ers that bring in their train influence and patronage of great 
extent, and thus excludes the operation of personal interests, 
everywhere the bane of official trust. I derive, too, no small 
degree of satisfaction from the reflection that if I have mis- 
taken the interests and wishes of the people the Constitution 
affords the means of soon redressing the error by selecting 
for the place their favor has bestowed upon me a citizen 
whose opinions may accord with their own. I trust, in the 
meantime, the interests of the nation will be saved from 
prejudice by a rigid application of that portion of the public 
funds which might otherwise be applied to different objects 
to that highest of all our obligations, the payment of the 
public debt, and an opportunity be afforded for the adoption 
of some better rule for the operations of the Government 



loo Andrew Jackson 

in this matter than any which has hitherto been acted 
upon. 

Profoundly impressed with the importance of the subject, 
not merely as relates to the general prosperity of the coun- 
try, but to the safety of the federal system, I can not avoid 
repeating my earnest hope that all good citizens who take 
a proper interest in the success and harmony of our admir- 
able political institutions, and who are incapable of desir- 
ing to convert an opposite state of things into means for 
the gratification of personal ambition, will, laying aside 
minor considerations and discarding local prejudices, unite 
their honest exertions to establish some fixed general 
principle which shall be calculated to effect the greatest 
extent of public good in regard to the subject of internal 
improvement, and afford the least ground for sectional 
discontent. 

The general grounds of my objection to local appropria- 
tions have been heretofore expressed, and I shall endeavor 
to avoid a repetition of what has been already urged — the 
importance of sustaining the State sovereignties as far as 
is consistent with the rightful action of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, and of preserving the greatest attainable harmony 
between them. I will now only add an expression of my 
conviction — a conviction which every day's experience 
serves to confirm — that the political creed which inculcates 
the pursuit of those great objects as a paramount duty is 
the true faith, and one to which we are mainly indebted for 
the present success of the entire system, and to which we 
must alone look for its future stability. 

That there are diversities in the interests of the different 
States which compose this extensive Confederacy must be 
admitted. Those diversities arising from situation, climate, 
population, and pursuits are doubtless, as it is natural they 
should be, greatly exaggerated by jealousies and that spirit 
of rivalry so inseparable from neighboring communities. 
These circumstances make it the duty of those who are in- 
trusted with the management of its affairs to neutralize 
their effects as far as practicable by making the beneficial 



Second Annual Message loi 

operation of the Federal Government as equal and equitable 
among the several States as can be done consistently with 
the great ends of its institution. 

It is only necessary to refer to undoubted facts to see how 
far the past acts of the Government upon the subject under 
consideration have fallen short of this object. The expend- 
itures heretofore made for internal improvements amount 
to upward of $5,000,000, and have been distributed in very 
unequal proportions amongst the States. The estimated 
expense of works of which surveys have been made, to- 
gether with that of others projected and partially surveyed, 
amounts to more than $96,000,000. 

That such improvements, on account of particular cir- 
cumstances, may be more advantageously and beneficially 
made in some States than in others is doubtless true, but 
that they are of a character which should prevent an equi- 
table distribution of the funds amongst the several States is 
not to be conceded. The want of this equitable distribution 
can not fail to prove a prolific source of irritation among 
the States. 

We have it constantly before our eyes that professions of 
superior zeal in the cause of internal improvement and a 
disposition to lavish the public funds upon objects of this 
character are daily and earnestly put forth by aspirants to 
power as constituting the highest claims to the confidence of 
the people. Would it be strange, under such circumstances, 
and in times of great excitement, that grants of this de- 
scription should find their motives in objects which may 
not accord with the public good ? Those who have not had 
occasion to see and regret the indication of a sinister influ- 
ence in these matters in past times have been more fortu- 
nate than myself in their observation of the course of pub- 
lic affairs. If to these evils be added the combinations and 
angry contentions to which such a course of things gives 
rise, with their baleful influences upon the legislation of 
Congress touching the leading and appropriate duties of the 
Federal Government, it was but doing justice to the char- 
acter of our people to expect the severe condemnation of 



I02 Andrew Jackson 

the past which the recent exhibitions of public sentiment has 
evinced. 

Nothing short of a radical change in the action of the 
Government upon the subject can, in my opinion, remedy 
the evil. If, as it would be natural to expect, the States 
which have been least favored in past appropriations should 
insist on being redressed in those hereafter to be made, at 
the expense of the States which have so largely and dis- 
proportionately participated, we have, as matters now stand, 
but little security that the attempt would do more than 
change the inequality from one quarter to another. 

Thus viewing the subject, I have heretofore felt it my 
duty to recommend the adoption of some plan for the dis- 
tribution of the surplus funds, which may at any time re- 
main in the Treasury after the national debt shall have been 
paid, among the States, in proportion to the number of 
their Representatives, to be applied by them to objects of 
internal improvement. 

Although this plan has met with favor in some portions 
of the Union, it has also elicited objections which merit de- 
liberate consideration. A brief notice of these objections 
here will not, therefore, I trust, be regarded as out of place. 

They rest, as far as they have come to my knowledge, on 
the following grounds: First, an objection to the ratio of 
distribution; second, an apprehension that the existence of 
such a regulation would produce improvident and oppres- 
sive taxation to raise the funds for distribution ; third, that 
the mode proposed would lead to the construction of works 
of a local nature, to the exclusion of such as are general and 
as would consequently be of a more useful character; and, 
last, that it would create a discreditable and injurious de- 
pendence on the part of the State governments upon the 
Federal power. Of those who object to the ratio of rep- 
resentation as the basis of distribution, some insist that the 
importations of the respective States would constitute one 
that would be more equitable; and others again, that the 
extent of their respective territories would furnish a stand- 
ard which would be more expedient and sufficiently equi- 



Second Annual Message 103 

table. The ratio of representation presented itself to my 
mind, and it still does, as one of obvious equity, because 
of its being the ratio of contribution, whether the funds to 
be distributed be derived from the customs or from direct 
taxation. It does not follow^, hovuever, that its adoption is 
indispensable to the establishment of the system proposed. 
There may be considerations appertaining to the subject 
which would render a departure, to some extent, from the 
rule of contribution proper. Nor is it absolutely necessary 
that the basis of distribution be confined to one ground. It 
may, if in the judgment of those whose right it is to fix it 
it be deemed politic and just to give it that character, have 
regard to several. 

In my first message I stated it to be my opinion that " it 
is not probable that any adjustment of the tariff upon 
principles satisfactory to the people of the Union will until 
a remote period, if ever, leave the Government without a 
considerable surplus in the Treasury beyond what may be 
required for its current service." I have had no cause to 
change that opinion, but much to confirm it. Should these 
expectations be realized, a suitable fund would thus be pro- 
duced for the plan under consideration to operate upon, and 
if there be no such fund its adoption will, in my opinion, 
work no injury to any interest; for I can not assent to the 
justness of the apprehension that the establishment of the 
proposed system would tend to the encouragement of im- 
provident legislation of the character supposed. Whatever 
the proper authority in the exercise of constitutional power 
shall at any time hereafter decide to be for the general good 
will in that as in other respects deserve and receive the ac- 
quiescence and support of the whole country, and we have 
ample security that every abuse of power in that regard by 
agents of the people will receive a speedy and effectual cor- 
rective at their hands. The views which I take of the future, 
founded on the obvious and increasing improvement of all 
classes of our fellow-citizens in intelligence and in public 
and private virtue, leave me without much apprehension on 
that head. 



I04 Andrew Jackson 

I do not doubt that those who come after us will be as 
much alive as we are to the obligation upon all the trustees 
of political power to exempt those for whom they act from 
all unnecessary burthens, and as sensible of the great truth 
that the resources of the nation beyond those required for 
immediate and necessary purposes of Government can no- 
where be so well deposited as in the pockets of the people. 

It may sometimes happen that the interests of particular 
States would not be deemed to coincide with the general 
interest in relation to improvements within such States. 
But if the danger to be apprehended from this source is 
sufficient to require it, a discretion might be reserved to 
Congress to direct to such improvements of a general char- 
acter as the States concerned might not be disposed to unite 
in, the application of the quotas of those States, under the 
restriction of confining to each State the expenditure of its 
appropriate quota. It may, however, be assumed as a safe 
general rule that such improvements as serve to increase 
the prosperity of the respective States in which they are 
made, by giving new facilities to trade, and thereby aug- 
menting the wealth and comfort of their inhabitants, con- 
stitute the surest mode of conferring permanent and sub- 
stantial advantages upon the whole. The strength as well 
as the true glory of the Confederacy is founded on the pros- 
perity and power of the several independent sovereignties of 
which it is composed and the certainty with which they can 
be brought into successful active cooperation through the 
agency of the Federal Government. 

it is, morever, within the knowledge of such as are at 
all conversant with public affairs that schemes of internal 
improvement have from time to time been proposed which, 
from their extent and seeming magnificence, were readily 
regarded as of national concernment, but which upon fuller 
consideration and further experience would now be re- 
jected with great unanimity. 

That the plan under consideration would derive impor- 
tant advantages from its certainty, and that the moneys set 
apart for these purposes would be more judiciously applied 



Second Annual Message 105 

and economically expended under the direction of the State 
legislatures, in which every part of each State is immedi- 
ately represented, can not, I think, be doubted. In the new 
States particularly, where a comparatively small population 
is scattered over an extensive surface, and the representa- 
tion in Congress consequently very limited, it is natural to 
expect that the appropriations made by the Federal Gov- 
ernment would be more likely to be expended in the vicin- 
ity of those members through whose immediate agency 
they were obtained than if the funds were placed under the 
control of the legislature, in which every county of the 
State has its own representative. This supposition does not 
necessarily impugn the motives of such Congressional rep- 
resentatives, nor is it so intended. We are all sensible of 
the bias to which the strongest minds and purest hearts are, 
under such circumstances, liable. In respect to the last ob- 
jection — its probable effect upon the dignity and independ- 
ence of State governments — it appears to me only necessary 
to state the case as it is, and as it would be if the meas- 
ure proposed were adopted, to show that the operation is 
most likely to be the very reverse of that which the objec- 
tion supposes. 

In the one case the State would receive its quota of the 
national revenue for domestic use upon a fixed principle as 
a matter of right, and from a fund to the creation of which 
it had itself contributed its fair proportion. Surely there 
could be nothing derogatory in that. As matters now 
stand the States themselves, in their sovereign character, 
are not un frequently petitioners at the bar of the Federal 
Legislature for such allowances out of the National Treas- 
ury as it may comport with their pleasure or sense of duty 
to bestow upon them. It can not require argument to prove 
which of the two courses is most compatible with the effi- 
ciency or respectability of the State governments. 

But all these are matters for discussion and dispassionate 
consideration. That the desired adjustment would be at- 
tended with difficulty affords no reason why it should not 
be attempted. The effective operation of such motives 



io6 Andrew Jackson 

would have prevented the adoption of the Constitution 
under which we have so long lived and under the benign 
influence of which our beloved country has so signally pros- 
pered. The framers of that sacred instrument had greater 
difficulties to overcome, and they did overcome them. The 
patriotism of the people, directed by a deep conviction of 
the importance of the Union, produced mutual concession 
and reciprocal forbearance. Strict right was merged in a 
spirit of compromise, and the result has consecrated their 
disinterested devotion to the general weal. Unless the 
American people have degenerated, the same result can be 
again effected whenever experience points out the necessity 
of a resort to the same means to uphold the fabric which 
their fathers have reared. It is beyond the power of man 
to make a system of government like ours or any other 
operate with precise equality upon States situated like those 
which compose this Confederacy; nor is inequality always 
injustice. Every State can not expect to shape the meas- 
ures of the General Government to suit its own particular 
interests. The causes which prevent it are seated in the 
nature of things, and can not be entirely counteracted by 
human means. Mutual forbearance becomes, therefore, a 
duty obligatory upon all, and we may, I am confident, count 
upon a cheerful compliance with this high injunction on the 
part of our constituents. It is not to be supposed that they 
will object to make such comparatively inconsiderable sac- 
rifices for the preservation of rights and privileges which 
other less favored portions of the world have in vain waded 
through seas of blood to acquire. 

Our course is a safe one if it be but faithfully adhered to. 
Acquiescence in the constitutionally expressed will of the 
majority, and the exercise of that will in a spirit of modera- 
tion, justice, and brotherly kindness, will constitute a ce- 
ment which would forever preserve our Union. Those who 
cherish and inculcate sentiments like these render a most 
essential service to their country, while those who seek to 
weaken their influence are, however conscientious and 
praiseworthy their intentions, in effect its worst enemies. 



Second Annual Message 107 

If the intelligence and influence of the country, instead 
of laboring to foment sectional prejudices, to be made sub- 
servient to party warfare, were in good faith applied to the 
eradication of causes of local discontent, by the improve- 
ment of our institutions and by facilitating their adaptation 
to the condition of the times, this task would prove one of 
less difficulty. May we not hope that the obvious interests 
of our common country and the dictates of an enlightened 
patriotism will in the end lead the public mind in that di- 
rection ? 

After all, the nature of the subject does not admit of a 
plan wholly free from objection. That which has for some 
time been in operation is, perhaps, the worst that could 
exist, and every advance that can be made in its improve- 
ment is a matter eminently worthy of your most deliberate 
attention. 

It is very possible that one better calculated to effect the 
objects in view may yet be devised. If so, it is to be hoped 
that those who disapprove the past and dissent from what 
is proposed for the future will feel it their duty to direct 
their attention to it, as they must be sensible that unless 
some fixed rule for the action of the Federal Government 
in this respect is established the course now attempted to 
be arrested will be again resorted to. Any mode which is 
calculated to give the greatest degree of effect and harmony 
to our legislation upon the subject, which shall best serve 
to keep the movements of the Federal Government within 
the sphere intended by those who modeled and those who 
adopted it, which shall lead to the extinguishment of the 
national debt in the shortest period and impose the lightest 
burthens upon our constituents, shall receive from me a 
cordial and firm support. 

Among the objects of great national concern I can not 
omit to press again upon your attention that part of the 
Constitution which regulates the election of President and 
Vice-President. The necessity for its amendment is made 
so clear to my mind by observation of its evils and by the 
many able discussions which they have elicited on the floor 



io8 Andrew Jackson 

of Congress and elsewhere that I should be wanting to my 
duty were I to withhold another expression of my deep so- 
licitude on the subject. Our system fortunately contem- 
plates a recurrence to first principles, differing in this re- 
spect from all that have preceded it, and securing it, I trust, 
equally against the decay and the commotions which have 
marked the progress of other governments. Our fellow- 
citizens, too, who in proportion to their love of liberty keep 
a steady eye upon the means of sustaining it, do not re- 
quire to be reminded of the duty they owe to themselves to 
remedy all essential defects in so vital a part of their sys- 
tem. While they are sensible that every evil attendant upon 
its operation is not necessarily indicative of a bad organi- 
zation, but may proceed from temporary causes, yet the ha- 
bitual presence, or even a single instance, of evils which can 
be clearly traced to an organic defect will not, I trust, be 
overlooked through a too scrupulous veneration for the 
work of their ancestors. The Constitution was an experi- 
ment committed to the virtue and intelligence of the great 
mass of our countrymen, in whose ranks the framers of it 
themselves were to perform the part of patriotic observa- 
tion and scrutiny, and if they have passed from the stage of 
existence with an increased confidence in its general adapta- 
tion to our condition we should learn from authority so high 
the duty of fortifying the points in it which time proves to 
be exposed rather than be deterred from approaching them 
by the suggestions of fear or the dictates of misplaced rev- 
erence. 

A provision which does not secure to the people a direct 
choice of their Chief Magistrate, but has a tendency to de- 
feat their will, presented to my mind such an inconsistency 
with the general spirit of our institutions that I was induced 
to suggest for your consideration the substitute which ap- 
peared to me at the same time the most likely to correct the 
evil and to meet the views of our constituents. The most 
mature reflection since has added strength to the belief that 
the best interests of our country require the speedy adoption 
of some plan calculated to effect this end. A contingency 



Second Annual Message 109 

which sometimes places it in the power of a single member 
of the House of Representatives to decide an election of so 
high and solemn a character is unjust to the people, and be- 
comes when it occurs a source of embarrassment to the in- 
dividuals thus brought into power and a cause of distrust 
of the representative body. Liable as the Confederacy is, 
from its great extent, to parties founded upon sectional in- 
terests, and to a corresponding multiplication of candidates 
for the Presidency, the tendency of the constitutional ref- 
erence to the House of Representatives is to devolve the 
election upon that body in almost every instance, and, what- 
ever choice may then be made among the candidates thus 
presented to them, to swell the influence of particular in- 
terests to a degree inconsistent with the general good. The 
consequences of this feature of the Constitution appear far 
more threatening to the peace and integrity of the Union 
than any which I can conceive as likely to result from the 
simple legislative action of the Federal Government. — . 
I " It was a leading object with the framers of the Consti- / 
' tution to keep as separate as possible the action of the legis- 
lative and executive branches of the Government. To se- 
cure this object nothing is more essential than to preserve 
the former from all temptations of private interest, and 
therefore so to direct the patronage of the latter as not to 
permit such temptations to be offered. Experience abun- 
dantly demonstrates that every precaution in this respect is 
a valuable safeguard of liberty, and one which my reflec- 
tions upon the tendencies of our system incline me to think 
should be made still stronger^ It was for this reason that, 
in connection with an amendment of the Constitution re- 
moving all intermediate agency in the choice of the Presi- >%rjg^,^^,,<:u*''~' 
dent, I recommended some restrictions upon the reeligi- -/ 

bility of that ofiicer and upon the tenure of offices gen- 
erally. The reason still exists, and I renew the recom- \'^'30% 
mendation with an increased confidence that its adoption 
will strengthen those checks by which the Constitu- 
tion designed to secure the independence of each depart- 
ment of the Government and promote the healthful and 



„— ynjL/u 






no Andrew Jackson 

equitable administration of all the trusts which it has cre- 
ated. The agent most likely to contravene this design of 
the Constitution is the Chief Magistrate. In order, particu- 
larly, that his appointment may as far as possible be placed 
beyond the reach of any improper influences; in order that 
he may approach the solemn responsibilities of the highest 
office in the gift of a free people uncommitted to any other 
course than the strict line of constitutional duty, and that 
the securities for this independence may be rendered as 
strong as the nature of power and the weakness of its pos- 
sessor will admit, I can not too earnestly invite your at- 
tention to the propriety of promoting such an amendment 
of the Constitution as will render him ineligible after one 
term of service. 

It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the 
benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for 
nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians 
beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy con- 
summation. Two important tribes have accepted the pro- 
vision made for their removal at the last session of Con- 
gress, and it is believed that their example will induce the 
remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages. 

The consequence of a speedy removal will be important 
to the United States, to individual States, and to the In- 
dians themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it 
promises to the Government are the least of its recommen- 
dations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision 
between the authorities of the General and State Govern- 
ments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and 
civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied 
by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole territory 
between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south 
to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen 
the southwestern frontier and render the adjacent States 
strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. 
It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the west- 
ern part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those 
States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. 






Second Annual Message m 

It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with 
settlements of whites; free them from the power of the 
States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way 
and under their own rude institutions ; will retard the prog- 
ress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps 
cause them gradually, under the protection of the Govern- 
ment and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off 
their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and 
Christian community. These consequences, some of them 
so certain and the rest so probable, make the complete exe- 
cution of the plan sanctioned by Congress at their last ses- 
sion an object of much solicitude. 

Toward the aborigines of the country no one can indulge 
a more friendly feeling than myself, or would go further in 
attempting to reclaim them from their wandering habits 
and make them a happy, prosperous people, I have en- 
deavored to impress upon them my own solemn convictions 
of the duties and powers of the General Government in re- 
lation to the State authorities. For the justice of the laws 
passed by the States within the scope of their reserved pow- 
ers they are not responsible to this Government. As indi- 
viduals we may entertain and express our opinions of their 
acts, but as a Government we have as little right to control 
them as we have to prescribe laws for other nations. 

With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw 
and the Chickasaw tribes have with great unanimity deter- 
mined to avail themselves of the liberal offers presented by 
the act of Congress, and have agreed to remove beyond the 
Mississippi River, Treaties have been made with them, 
which in due season will be submitted for consideration. 
In negotiating these treaties they were made to understand 
their true condition, and they have preferred maintaining 
their independence in the Western forests to submitting to 
the laws of the States in which they now reside. These 
treaties, being probably the last which will ever be made 
with them, are characterized by great liberality on the part 
of the Government. They give the Indians a liberal sum 
in consideration of their removal, and comfortable subsist- 



1 1 2 Andrew Jackson 

ence on their arrival at their new homes. If it be their real 
interest to maintain a separate existence, they will there be 
at liberty to do so without the inconveniences and vexations 
to which they would unavoidably have been subject in Ala- 
bama and Mississippi. 

Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines 
of this country, and Philanthropy has been long busily em- 
ployed in devising means to avert it, but its progress has 
never for a moment been arrested, and one by one have 
many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To fol- 
low to the tomb the last of his race and to tread on the 
graves of extinct nations excite melancholy reflections. But 
true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes 
as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room 
for another. In the monuments and fortresses of an un- 
known people, spread over the extensive regions of the 
West, we behold the memorials of a once powerful race, 
which was exterminated or has disappeared to make room 
for the existing savage tribes. Nor is there anything in 
this which, upon a comprehensive view of the general in- 
terests of the human race, is to be regretted. Philanthropy 
could not wish to see this continent restored to the con- 
dition in which it was found by our forefathers. What 
good man would prefer a country covered with forests and 
ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Re- 
public, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, 
embellished with all the improvements which art can de- 
vise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 
happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, 
civilization, and religion? 

The present policy of the Government is but a continua- 
tion of the same progressive change by a milder process. 
The tribes which occupied the countries now constituting 
the Eastern States were annihilated or have melted away to 
make room for the whites. The waves of population and 
civilization are rolling to the westward, and we now pro- 
pose to acquire the countries occupied by the red men of 
the South and West by a fair exchange, and, at the expense 



Second Annual Message 113 

of the United States, to send them to a land where their 
existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual. 
Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their 
fathers; but what do they more than our ancestors did or 
than our children are now doing ? To better their condition 
in an unknown land our forefathers left all that was dear 
in earthly objects. Our children by thousands yearly leave 
the land of their birth to seek new homes in distant regions. 
Does Humanity weep at these painful separations from 
everything, animate and inanimate, with which the young 
heart has become entwined? Far from it. It is rather a 
source of joy that our country affords scope where our 
young population may range unconstrained in body or in 
mind, developing the power and faculties of man in their 
highest perfection. These remove hundreds and almost 
thousands of miles at their own expense, purchase the lands 
they occupy, and support themselves at their new homes 
from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this 
Government when, by events which it can not control, the 
Indian is made discontented in his ancient home to purchase 
his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay 
the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his 
new abode? How many thousands of our own people 
would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the 
West on such conditions ! If the offers made to the Indians 
were extended to them, they would be hailed with gratitude 
and joy. 

And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a 
stronger attachment to his home than the settled, civilized 
Christian? Is it more afflicting to him to leave the graves 
of his fathers than it is to our brothers and children? 
Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government 
toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He 
is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle 
with their population. To save him from this alternative, 
or perhaps utter annihilation, the General Government 
kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the 
whole expense of his removal and settlement. 



114 Andrew Jackson 

In the consummation of a policy originating at an early 
period, and steadily pursued by every Administration with- 
in the present century — so just to the States and so gen- 
erous to the Indians — the Executive feels it has a right to 
expect the cooperation of Congress and of all good and dis- 
interested men. The States, moreover, have a right to de- 
mand it. It was substantially a part of the compact which 
made them members of our Confederacy. With Georgia 
there is an express contract; with the new States an im- 
plied one of equal obligation. Why, in authorizing Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama to 
form constitutions and become separate States, did Con- 
gress include within their limits extensive tracts of Indian 
lands, and, in some instances, powerful Indian tribes ? Was 
it not understood by both parties that the power of the States 
was to be coextensive with their limits, and that with all 
convenient dispatch the General Government should extin- 
guish the Indian title and remove every obstruction to the 
complete jurisdiction of the State governments over the 
soil ? Probably not one of those States would have accepted 
a separate existence — certainly it would never have been 
granted by Congress — had it been understood that they 
were to be confined forever to those small portions of their 
nominal territory the Indian title to which had at the time 
been extinguished. 

It is, therefore, a duty which this Government owes to 
the new States to extinguish as soon as possible the Indian 
title to all lands which Congress themselves have included 
within their limits. When this is done the duties of the 
General Government in relation to the States and the In- 
dians within their limits are at an end. The Indians may 
leave the State or not, as they choose. The purchase of 
their lands does not alter in the least their personal rela- 
tions with the State government. No act of the General 
Government has ever been deemed necessary to give the 
States jurisdiction over the persons of the Indians. That 
they possess by virtue of their sovereign power within their 
own limits in as full a manner before as after the purchase 



Second Annual Message "5 

of the Indian lands; nor can this Government add to or 
diminish it. 

May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and 
none more zealously than those who think the Indians op- 
pressed by subjection to the laws of the States, will unite in 
attempting to open the eyes of those children of the forest 
to their true condition, and by a speedy removal to relieve 
them from all the evils, real or imaginary, present or pros- 
pective, with which they may be supposed to be threatened. 

Among the numerous causes of congratulation the condi- 
tion of our impost revenue deserves special mention, inas- 
much as it promises the means of extinguishing the public 
debt sooner than was anticipated, and furnishes a strong 
illustration of the practical effects of the present tariff upon 
our commercial interests. 

The object of the tariff is objected to by some as un- 
constitutional, and it is considered by almost all as defec- 
tive in many of its parts. 

The power to impose duties on imports originally be- 
longed to the several States. The right to adjust those 
duties with a view to the encouragement of domestic 
branches of industry is so completely incidental to that 
power that it is difficult to suppose the existence of the one 
without the other. The States have delegated their whole 
authority over imports to the General Government without 
limitation or restriction, saving the very inconsiderable res- 
ervation relating to their inspection laws. This authority 
having thus entirely passed from the States, the right to 
exercise it for the purpose of protection does not exist in 
them, and consequently if it be not possessed by the Gen- 
eral Government it must be extinct. Our political system 
would thus present the anomaly of a people stripped of the 
right to foster their own industry and to counteract the 
most selfish and destructive policy which might be adopted 
by foreign nations. This surely can not be the case. This 
indispensable power thus surrendered by the States must 
be within the scope of the authority on the subject expressly 
delegated to Congress. 



ii6 Andrew Jackson 

In this conclusion I am confirmed as well by the opin- 
ions of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and 
Monroe, who have each repeatedly recommended the exer- 
cise of this right under the Constitution, as by the uniform 
practice of Congress, the continued acquiescence of the 
States, and the general understanding of the people. 

The difficulties of a more expedient adjustment of the 
present tariff, although great, are far from being insur- 
mountable. Some are unwilling to improve any of its parts 
because they would destroy the whole; others fear to touch 
the objectionable parts lest those they approve should be 
jeoparded. I am persuaded that the advocates of these con- 
flicting views do injustice to the American people and to 
their representatives. The general interest is the interest 
of each, and my confidence is entire that to insure the 
adoption of such modifications of the tariff as the general 
interest requires it is only necessary that that interest should 
be understood. 

It is an infirmity of our nature to mingle our interests 
and prejudices with the operation of our reasoning powers, 
and attribute to the objects of our likes and dislikes quali- 
ties they do not possess and effects they can not produce. 
The effects of the present tariff are doubtless overrated, 
both in its evil and in its advantages. By one class of rea- 
soners the reduced price of cotton and other agricultural 
products is ascribed wholly to its influence, and by another 
the reduced price of manufactured articles. The probabil- 
ity is that neither opinion approaches the truth, and that 
both are induced by that influence of interests and preju- 
dices to which I have referred. The decrease of prices ex- 
tends throughout the commercial world, embracing not only 
the raw material and the manufactured article, but provi- 
sions and lands. The cause must therefore be deeper and 
more pervading than the tariff of the United States. It 
may in a measure be attributable to the increased value of 
the precious metals, produced by a diminution of the supply 
and an increase in the demand, while commerce has rapidly 
extended itself and population has augmented. The supply 



Second Annual Message 117 

of gold and silver, the general medium of exchange, has 
been greatly interrupted by civil convulsions in the coun- 
tries from which they are principally drawn. A part of the 
effect, too, is doubtless owing to an increase of operatives 
and improvements in machinery. But on the whole it is 
questionable whether the reduction in the price of lands, 
produce, and manufactures has been greater than the ap- 
preciation of the standard of value. 

While the chief object of duties should be revenue, they 
may be so adjusted as to encourage manufactures. In this 
adjustment, however, it is the duty of the Government to 
be guided by the general good. Objects of national impor- 
tance alone ought to be protected. Of these the productions 
of our soil, our mines, and our workshops, essential to na- 
tional defense, occupy the first rank. Whatever other spe- 
cies of domestic industry, having the importance to which I 
have referred, may be expected, after temporary protection, 
to compete with foreign labor on equal terms merit the same 
attention in a subordinate degree. 

The present tariff taxes some of the comforts of life un- 
necessarily high ; it undertakes to protect interests too local 
and minute to justify a general exaction, and it also at- 
tempts to force some kinds of manufactures for which the 
country is not ripe. Much relief will be derived in some 
of these respects from the measures of your last session. 

The best as well as fairest mode of determining whether 
from any just considerations a particular interest ought to 
receive protection would be to submit the question singly 
for deliberation. If after due examination of its merits, un- 
connected with extraneous considerations — such as a desire 
to sustain a general system or to purchase support for a 
different interest — it should enlist in its favor a majority of 
the representatives of the people, there can be little danger 
of wrong or injury in adjusting the tariff with reference to 
its protective effect. If this obviously just principle were 
honestly adhered to, the branches of industry which de- 
serve protection would be saved from the prejudice excited 
against them when that protection forms part of a system 



1 1 ^ Andrew Jackson 

by which portions of the country feel or conceive them- 
selves to be oppressed. What is incalculably more impor- 
tant, the vital principle of our system — that principle which 
requires acquiescence in the will of the majority — would be 
secure from the discredit and danger to which it is exposed 
by the acts of majorities founded not on identity of con- 
viction, but on combinations of small minorities en- 
tered into for the purpose of mutual assistance in measures 
which resting solely on their own merits, could never be 
carried. 

I am well aware that this is a subject of so much deli- 
cacy, on account of the extended interests it involves, as 
to require that it should be touched with the utmost cau- 
tion, and that while an abandonment of the policy in which 
it originated — a policy coeval with our Government, and 
pursued through successive Administrations — is neither to 
be expected or desired, the people have a right to demand, 
and have demanded, that it be so modified as to correct 
abuses and obviate injustice. 

That our deliberations on this interesting subject should 
be uninfluenced by those partisan conflicts that are incident 
to free institutions is the fervent wish of my heart. To 
make this great question, which unhappily so much divides 
and excites the public mind, subservient to the short-sighted 
views of faction must destroy all hope of settling it satis- 
factorily to the great body of the people and for the gen- 
eral interest. I can not, therefore, in taking leave of the 
subject, too earnestly for my own feelings or the common 
good warn you against the blighting consequences of such 
a course. 

According to the estimates at the Treasury Department, 
the receipts in the Treasury during the present year will 
amount to $24,161,018, which will exceed by about 
$300,000 the estimate presented in the last annual report 
of the Secretary of the Treasury. The total expenditure 
during the year, exclusive of public debt, is estimated at 
$13,742,311, and the payment on account of public debt for 
the same period will have been $11,354,630, leaving a bal- 



Second Annual Message 1 1 9 

ance in the Treasury on the ist of January, 1831, of $4,- 
819,781. 

In connection with the condition of our finances, it af- 
fords me pleasure to remark that judicious and efficient ar- 
rangements have been made by the Treasury Department 
for securing the pecuniary responsibiHty of the pubHc offi- 
cers and the more punctual payment of the public dues. 
The Revenue-Cutter Service has been organized and placed 
on a good footing, and aided by an increase of inspectors at 
exposed points, and regulations adopted under the act of 
May, 1830, for the inspection and appraisement of mer- 
chandise, has produced much improvement in the execution 
of the laws and more security against the commission of 
frauds upon the revenue. Abuses in the allowances for 
fishing bounties have also been corrected, and a material 
saving in that branch of the service thereby effected. In 
addition to these improvements the system of expenditure 
for sick seamen belonging to the merchant service has been 
revised, and being rendered uniform and economical the 
benefits of the fund applicable to this object have been use- 
fully extended. 

The prosperity of our country is also further evinced by 
the increased revenue arising from the sale of public lands, 
as will appear from the report of the Commissioner of the 
General Land Office and the documents accompanying it, 
which are herewith transmitted. I beg leave to draw your 
attention to this report, and to the propriety of making 
early appropriations for the objects which it specifies. 

Your attention is again invited to the subjects connected 
with that portion of the public interests intrusted to the 
War Department. Some of them were referred to in my 
former message, and they are presented in detail in the re- 
port of the Secretary of War herewith submitted. I refer 
you also to the report of that officer for a knowledge of the 
state of the Army, fortifications, arsenals, and Indian af- 
fairs, all of which it will be perceived have been guarded 
with zealous attention and care. It is worthy of your con- 
sideration whether the armaments necessary for the fortifi- 



I20 Andrew Jackson 



\ 5 



cations on our maritime frontier which are now or shortly 
will be completed should not be in readiness sooner than 
the customary appropriations will enable the Department 
to provide them. This precaution seems to be due to the 
general system of fortification which has been sanctioned by 
Congress, and is recommended by that maxim of wisdom 
which tells us in peace to prepare for war. 

I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy 
for a highly satisfactory account of the manner in which 
the concerns of that Department have been conducted dur- 
I ing the present year. Our position in relation to the most 
powerful nations of the earth, and the present condition of 
; Europe, admonish us to cherish this arm of our national 
defense with peculiar care. Separated by wide seas from 
all those Governments whose power we might have reason 
to dread, we have nothing to apprehend from attempts at 
conquest. It is chiefly attacks upon our commerce and har- 
assing inroads upon our coast against which we have to 
guard. A naval force adequate to the protection of our 
commerce, always afloat, with an accumulation of the means 
to give it a rapid extension in case of need, furnishes the 
power by which all such aggressions may be prevented or 
repelled. The attention of the Government has therefore 
been recently directed more to preserving the public ves- 
sels already built and providing materials to be placed in 
depot for future use than to increasing their number. With 
the aid of Congress, in a few years the Government will be 
prepared in case of emergency to put afloat a powerful navy 
of new ships almost as soon as old ones could be repaired. 

The modifications in this part of the service suggested in 
my last annual message, which are noticed more in detail 
in the report of the Secretary of the Navy, are again recom- 
mended to your serious attention. 

The report of the Postmaster-General in like manner ex- 
hibits a satisfactory view of the important branch of the 
Government under his charge. In addition to the benefits 
already secured by the operations of the Post-Office Depart- 
ment, considerable improvements within the present year 



Second Annual Message 121 

have been made by an increase in the accommodation af- 
forded by stage coaches, and in the frequency and celerity 
of the mail between some of the most important points of 
the Union. 

Under the late contracts improvements have been pro- 
vided for the southern section of the country, and at the 
same time an annual saving made of upward of $72,000. 
Notwithstanding the excess of expenditure beyond the cur- 
rent receipts for a few years past, necessarily incurred in the 
fulfillment of existing contracts and in the additional ex- 
penses between the periods of contracting to meet the de- 
mands created by the rapid growth and extension of our 
flourishing country, yet the satisfactory assurance is given 
that the future revenue of the Department will be sufficient 
to meet its extensive engagements. The system recently 
introduced that subjects its receipts and disbursements to 
strict regulation has entirely fulfilled its designs. It gives 
full assurance of the punctual transmission, as well as the 
security of the funds of the Department. The efficiency 
and industry of its officers and the ability and energy of 
contractors justify an increased confidence in its continued 
prosperity. 

The attention of Congress was called on a former occa- 
sion to the necessity of such a modification in the office of 
Attorney-General of the United States as would render it 
more adequate to the wants of the public service. This re- 
sulted in the establishment of the office of Solicitor of the 
Treasury, and the earliest measures were taken to give ef- 
fect to the provisions of the law which authorized the ap- 
pointment of that officer and defined his duties. But it is 
not believed that this provision, however useful in itself, is 
calculated to supersede the necessity of extending the duties 
and powers of the Attorney-General's Office. On the con- 
trary, I am convinced that the public interest would be 
greatly promoted by giving to that officer the general sup- 
erintendence of the various law agents of the Government, 
and of all law proceedings, whether civil or criminal, in 
which the United States may be interested, allowing him at 



122 Andrew Jackson 

the same time such a compensation as would enable him to 
devote his undivided attention to the public business. I 
think such a provision is alike due to the public and to the 
officer. 

Occasions of reference from the different Executive De- 
partments to the Attorney-General are of frequent occur- 
rence, and the prompt decision of the questions so referred 
tends much to facilitate the dispatch of business in those 
Departments. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury 
hereto appended shows also a branch of the public service 
not specifically intrusted to any officer which might be ad- 
vantageously committed to the Attorney-General. But in- 
dependently of those considerations this office is now one 
of daily duty. It was originally organized and its compen- 
sation fixed with a view to occasional service, leaving to the 
incumbent time for the exercise of his profession in pri- 
vate practice. The state of things which warranted such an 
organization no longer exists. The frequent claims upon 
the services of this officer would render his absence from 
the seat of Government in professional attendance upon 
the courts injurious to the public service, and the interests 
of the Government could not fail to be promoted by charg- 
ing him with the general superintendence of all its legal 
concerns. 

Under a strong conviction of the justness of these sugges- 
tions, I recommend it to Congress to make the necessary pro- 
visions for giving effect to them, and to place the Attorney- 
General in regard to compensation on the same footing with 
the heads of the several Executive Departments. To this of- 
ficer might also be intrusted a cognizance of the cases of 
insolvency in public debtors, especially if the views which 
I submitted on this subject last year should meet the appro- 
bation of Congress — to which I again solicit your attention. 

Your attention is respectfully invited to the situation of 
the District of Columbia. Placed by the Constitution under 
the exclusive jurisdiction and control of Congress, this Dis- 
trict is certainly entitled to a much greater share of its con- 
sideration than it has yet received. There is want of 



Second Annual Message 123 

uniformity in its laws, particularly in those of a penal char- 
acter, which increases the expense of their administration 
and subjects the people to all the inconveniences which re- 
sult from the operation of different codes in so small a ter- 
ritory. On different sides of the Potomac the same offense 
is punishable in unequal degrees, and the peculiarities of 
many of the early laws of Maryland and Virginia remain in 
force, notwithstanding their repugnance in some cases to 
the improvements which have superseded them in those 
States. 

Besides a remedy for these evils, which is loudly called 
for, it is respectfully submitted whether a provision author- 
izing the election of a delegate to represent the wants of 
the citizens of this District on the floor of Congress is not 
due to them and to the character of our Government. No 
portion of our citizens should be without a practical enjoy- 
ment of the principles of freedom, and there is none more 
important than that which cultivates a proper relation be- 
tween the governors and the governed. Imperfect as this 
must be in this case, yet it is believed that it would be 
greatly improved by a representation in Congress with the 
same privileges that are allowed to the other Territories of 
the United States. 

The penitentiary is ready for the reception of convicts, 
and only awaits the necessary legislation to put it into op- 
eration, as one object of which I beg leave to recall your 
attention to the propriety of providing suitable compensa- 
tion for the officers charged with its inspection. 

The importance of the principles involved in the inquiry 
whether it will be proper to recharter the Bank of the 
United States requires that I should again call the attention 
of Congress to the subject. Nothing has occurred to les- 
sen in any degree the dangers which many of our citizens 
apprehend from that institution as at present organized. 
In the spirit of improvement and compromise which dis- 
tinguishes our country and its institutions it becomes us to 
inquire whether it be not possible to secure the advantages 
afforded by the present bank through the agency of a Bank 



124 Andrew Jackson 

of the United States so modified in its principles and struc- 
ture as to obviate constitutional and other objections. 

It is thought practicable to organize such a bank with 
the necessary officers as a branch of the Treasury Depart- 
ment, based on the public and individual deposits, without 
power to make loans or purchase property, which shall re- 
mit the funds of the Government, and the expense of which 
may be paid, if thought advisable, by allowing its officers to 
sell bills of exchange to private individuals at a moderate 
premium. Not being a corporate body, having no stock- 
holders, debtors, or property, and but few officers, it would 
not be obnoxious to the constitutional objections which are 
urged against the present bank; and having no means to 
operate on the hopes, fears, or interests of large masses of 
the community, it would be shorn of the influence which 
makes that bank formidable. The States would be strength- 
ened by having in their hands the means of furnishing the 
local paper currency through their own banks, while the 
Bank of the United States, though issuing no paper, would 
check the issues of the State banks by taking their notes in 
deposit and for exchange only so long as they continue to be 
redeemed with specie. In times of public emergency the ca- 
pacities of such an institution might be enlarged by legisla- 
tive provisions. 

These suggestions are made not so much as a recommen- 
dation as with a view of calling the attention of Congress 
to the possible modifications of a system which can not 
continue to exist in its present form without occasional 
collisions with the local authorities and perpetual apprehen- 
sions and discontent on the part of the States and the 
people. 

In conclusion, fellow-citizens, allow me to invoke in be- 
half of your deliberations that spirit of conciliation and dis- 
interestedness which is the gift of patriotism. Under an 
overruling and merciful Providence the agency of this spirit 
has thus far been signalized in the prosperity and glory of 
our beloved country. May its influence be eternal. 



Message on Indian Affairs. 



* 



(February 22, 183 1.) 

To the Senate of the United States: I have received your 
resolution of the 15th instant; requesting me "to inform 
the Senate whether the provisions of the act entitled ' An 
act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes 
and to preserve peace on the frontiers,' passed the 30th of 
March, 1802, have been fully complied with on the part of 
the United States Government, and if they have not that he 
inform the Senate of the reasons that have induced the 
Government to decline the enforcement of said act," and I 
now reply to the same. 

According to my views of the act referred to, I am not 
aware of any omission to carry into effect its provisions in 
relation to trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes so 
far as their execution depended on the agency confided to 
the Executive, 

The numerous provisions of that act designed to secure 
to the Indians the peaceable possession of their lands may be 
reduced, substantially, to the following: That citizens of 
the United States are restrained under sufficient penalties 
from entering upon the lands for the purpose of hunting 
thereon, or of settling them, or of giving their horses and 
cattle the benefit of a range upon them, or of traveling 
through them without a written permission ; and that the 
President of the United States is authorized to employ the 
military force of the country to secure the observance of 
these provisions. The authority to the President, however, 
is not imperative. The language is : 

* This message is explicatory of the policy of the Government 
toward the Indian tribes. 

125 



126 Andrew Jackson 

It shall be lawful for the President to take such measures 
and to employ such military force as he may judge neces- 
sary to remove from lands belonging to or secured by treaty 
to any Indian tribe any citizen who shall make a settlement 
thereon. 

By the nineteenth section of this act it is provided that 
nothing in it " shall be construed to prevent any trade or 
intercourse with Indians living on lands surrounded by set- 
tlements of citizens of the United States and being within 
the ordinary jurisdiction of any of the individual States." 
This provision I have interpreted as being prospective in its 
operation and as applicable not only to Indian tribes which 
at the date of its passage were subject to the jurisdiction of 
any State, but to such also as should thereafter become so. 
To this construction of its meaning I have endeavored to 
conform, and have taken no step inconsistent with it. As 
soon, therefore, as the sovereign power of the State of 
Georgia was exercised by an extension of her laws through- 
out her limits, and I had received information of the same, 
orders were given to withdraw from the State the troops 
which had been detailed to prevent intrusion upon the In- 
dian lands within it, and these orders were executed. The 
reasons which dictated them shall be frankly communi- 
cated. 

The principle recognized in the section last quoted was 
not for the first time then avowed. It is conformable to 
the uniform practice of the Government before the adoption 
of the Constitution, and amounts to a distinct recognition 
by Congress at that early day of the doctrine that that in- 
strument had not varied the powers of the Federal Govern- 
ment over Indian affairs from what they were under the 
Articles of Confederation. It is not believed that there is 
a single instance in the legislation of the country in which 
the Indians have been regarded as possessing political rights 
independent of the control and authority of the States 
within tlic limits of which they resided. As early as the 
year 1782 the Journals of Congress will show that no 



Message on Indian AiFairs 127 

claim of such a character was countenanced by that body. 
In that year the appHcation of a tribe of Indians residing in 
South Carolina to have certain tracts of land which had 
been reserved for their use in that State secured to them 
free from intrusion, and without the right of alienating 
them even with their own consent, was brought to the con- 
sideration of Congress by a report from the Secretary of 
War. The resolution which was adopted on that occasion 
is as follows : 

Resolved, That it be recommended to the legislature of 
South Carolina to take such measures for the satisfaction 
and security of said tribes as the said legislature in their 
wisdom may think fit. 

Here is no assertion of the right of Congress under the 
Articles of Confederation to interfere with the jurisdiction 
of the States over Indians within their limits, but rather a 
negation of it. They refused to interfere with the subject, 
and referred it under a general recommendation back to 
the State, to be disposed of as her wisdom might decide. 

If in addition to this act and the language of the Articles 
of Confederation anything further can be wanting to show 
the early views of the Government on the subject, it will 
be found in the proclamation issued by Congress in 1783. 
It contains this language : 

The United States in Congress assembled have thought 
proper to issue their proclamation, and they do hereby pro- 
hibit and forbid all persons from making settlements on 
lands inhabited or claimed by Indians without the limits or 
jurisdiction of any particular State. 

And again : 

Resolved, That the preceding measures "of Congress rel- 
ative to Indian affairs shall not be construed to affect the 
territorial claims of any of the States or their legislative 
rights within their respective limits. 



128 Andrew Jackson 

It was not then pretended that the General Government 
had the power in their relations with the Indians to control 
or oppose the internal polity of the individual States of this 
Union, and if such was the case under the Articles of Con- 
federation the only question on the subject since must arise 
out of some more enlarged power or authority given to the 
General Government by the present Constitution. Does any 
such exist? 

Amongst the enumerated grants of the Constitution that 
which relates to this subject is expressed in these words : 
" Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with the 
Indian tribes." In the interpretation of this power we 
ought certainly to be guided by what had been the practice 
of the Government and the meaning which had been gen- 
erally attached to the resolves of the old Congress if the 
words used to convey it do not clearly import a different 
one, as far as it affects the question of jurisdiction in the 
individual States. The States ought not to be divested of 
any part of their antecedent jurisdiction by implication or 
doubtful construction. Tested by this rule it seems to me 
to be unquestionable that the jurisdiction of the States is 
left untouched by this clause of the Constitution, and that it 
was designed to give to the General Government complete 
control over the trade and intercourse of those Indians only 
who were not within the limits of any State. 

From a view of the acts referred to and the uniform 
practice of the Government it is manifest that until recently 
it has never been maintained that the right of jurisdiction 
by a State over Indians within its territory was subordinate 
to the power of the Federal Government. That doctrine 
has not been enforced nor even asserted in any of the States 
of New England where tribes of Indians have resided, and 
where a few of them yet remain. These tribes have been 
left to the undisturbed control of the States in which they 
were found, in conformity with the view which has been 
taken of the opinions prevailing up to 1789 and the clear 
interpretation of the act of 1802. In the State of New 
York, where several tribes have resided, it has been the pol- 



Message on Indian Affairs 129 

icy of the Government to avoid entering into quasi treaty 
engagements with them, barely appointing commissioners 
occasionally on the part of the United States to facihtate 
the objects of the State in its negotiations with them. The 
Southern States present an exception to this pohcy. As 
early as 1784 the settlements within the limits of North 
Carolina were advanced farther to the west than the au- 
thority of the State to enforce an obedience of its laws. 
Others were in a similar condition. The necessities, there- 
fore, and not the acknowledged principles, of the Govern- 
ment must have suggested the policy of treating with the 
Indians in that quarter as the only practicable mode of 
conciliating their good will. The United States at that 
period had just emerged from a protracted war for the 
achievement of their independence. At the moment of its 
conclusion many of these tribes, as powerful as they were 
ferocious in their mode of warfare, remained in arms, deso- 
lating our frontier settlements. Under these circumstances 
the first treaties, in 1785 and 1790, with the Cherokees, 
were concluded by the Government of the United States, 
and were evidently sanctioned as measures of necessity 
adapted to the character of the Indians and indispens- 
able to the peace and security of the western frontier. 
But they can not be understood as changing the political 
relations of the Indians to the States or to the Federal 
Government. To effect this would have required the 
operation of quite a different principle and the inter- 
vention of a tribunal higher than that of the treaty-making 
power. 

To infer from the assent of the Government to this devia- 
tion from the practice which had before governed its in- 
tercourse with the Indians, and the accidental forbearance 
of the States to assert their right of jurisdiction over them, 
that they had surrendered this portion of their sovereignty, 
and that its assumption now is usurpation, is conceding too 
much to the necessity which dictated those treaties, and 
doing violence to the principles of the Government and the 
rights of the States without benefiting in the least degree 



13° Andrew Jackson 

the Indians. The Indians thus situated can not be regarded 
in any other Hght than as members of a foreign government 
or of that of the State within whose chartered hmits they re- 
side. If in the former, the ordinary legislation of Congress 
in relation to them is not warranted by the Constitution, 
which was established for the benefit of our own, not of a 
foreign people. If in the latter, then, like other citizens 
or people resident within the limits of the States, they are 
subject to their jurisdiction and control. To maintain a 
contrary doctrine and to require the Executive to enforce it 
by the employment of a military force would be to place in 
his hands a power to make war upon the rights of the States 
and the liberties of the country — a power which should be 
placed in the hands of no individual. 

If, indeed, the Indians are to be regarded as people pos- 
sessing rights which they can exercise independently of 
the States, much error has arisen in the intercourse of the 
Government with them. Why is it that they have been 
called upon to assist in our wars without the privilege of 
exercising their own discretion ? If an independent people, 
they should as such be consulted and advised with ; but they 
have not been. In an order which was issued to me from 
the War Department in September, 1814, this language is 
employed : 

All the friendly Indians should be organized and prepared 
to cooperate with your other forces. There appears to be 
some dissatisfaction among the Choctaws; their friendship 
and services should be secured without delay. The friendly 
Indians must be fed and paid, and made to fight when and 
where their services may be required. 

To an independent and foreign people this would seem to 
be assuming, I should suppose, rather too lofty a tone — one 
which the Government would not have assumed if they had 
considered them in that light. Again, by the Constitution 
the power of declaring war belongs exclusively to Congress. 
We have been often engaged in war with the Indian tribes 



Message on Indian Affairs 13^ 

within our limits, but when have these hostihties been pre- 
ceded or accompanied by an act of Congress declaring war 
against the tribe which was the object of them? And was 
the prosecution of such hostilities an usurpation in each case 
by the Executive which conducted them of the constitu- 
tional power of Congress? It must have been so, I appre- 
hend, if these tribes are to be considered as foreign and 
independent nations. 

The steps taken to prevent intrusion upon Indian lands 
had their origin with the commencement of our Govern- 
ment, and became the subject of special legislation in 1802, 
with the reservations which have been mentioned in favor 
of the jurisdiction of the States. With the exception of 
South Carolina, who has uniformly regulated the Indians 
wMthin her limits without the aid of the General Govern- 
ment, they have been felt within all the States of the South 
without being understood to affect their rights or prevent 
the exercise of their jurisdiction, whenever they were in a 
situation to assume and enforce it. Georgia, though mate- 
rially concerned, has on this principle forborne to spread her 
legislation farther than the settlements of her own white 
citizens, until she has recently perceived within her limits 
a people claiming to be capable of self-government, sitting 
in legislative council, organizing courts and administering 
justice. To disarm such an anomalous invasion of her sov- 
ereignty she has declared her determination to execute her 
own laws throughout her limits — a step which seems to 
have been anticipated by the proclamation of 1783, and 
which is perfectly consistent with the nineteenth section of 
the act of 1802. According to the language and reasoning 
of that section, the tribes to the South and the Southwest 
are not only " surrounded by settlements of the citizens of 
the United States," but are now also " within the ordinary 
jurisdiction of the individual States." They became so 
from the moment the laws of the State were extended over 
them, and the same result follows the similar determination 
of Alabama and Mississippi. These States have each a 
right to claim in behalf of their position now on this ques- 



13^ Andrew Jackson 

tion the same respect which is conceded to the other States 
of the Union. 

Toward this race of people I entertain the kindest feel- 
ings, and am not sensible that the views which I have taken 
of their true interests are less favorable to them than those 
which oppose their emigration to the West. Years since I 
stated to them my belief that if the States chose to extend 
their laws over them it would not be in the power of the 
Federal Government to prevent it. My opinion remains 
the same, and I can see no alternative for them but that of 
their removal to the West or a quiet submission to the 
State laws. If they prefer to remove, the United States 
agree to defray their expenses, to supply them the means of 
transportation and a year's support after they reach their 
new homes — a provision too liberal and kind to deserve the 
stamp of injustice. Either course promises them peace and 
happiness, whilst an obstinate perseverance in the effort to 
maintain their possessions independent of the State author- 
ity can not fail to render their condition still more helpless 
and miserable. Such an effort ought, therefore, to be dis- 
countenanced by all who sincerely sympathize in the for- 
tunes of this peculiar people, and especially by the political 
bodies of the Union, as calculated to disturb the harmony 
of the two Governments and to endanger the safety of the 
many blessings which they enable us to enjoy. 

As connected with the subject of this inquiry, I beg leave 
to refer to the accompanying letter from the Secretary of 
War, inclosing the orders which proceeded from that De- 
partment, and a letter from the governor of Georgia. 



Third Annual Message.* 

(December 6, 1831.) 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representor 
tives: The representation of the people has been renewed 
for the twenty-second time since the Constitution they 
formed has been in force. For near half a century the 
Chief Magistrates who have been successively chosen have 
made their annual communications of the state of the na- 
tion to its representatives. Generally these communications 
have been of the most gratifying nature, testifying an ad- 
vance in all the improvements of social and all the securities 
of political life. But frequently and justly as you have been 
called on to be grateful for the bounties of Providence, 
at a few periods have they been more abundantly or exten- 
sively bestowed than at the present ; rarely, if ever, have we 
had greater reason to congratulate each other on the con- 
tinued and increasing prosperity of our beloved country. 

Agriculture, the first and most important occupation of 
man, has compensated the labors of the husbandman with 
plentiful crops of all the varied products of our extensive 
country. Manufactures have been established in which the 
funds of the capitalist find a profitable investment, and 
which give employment and subsistence to a numerous and 
increasing body of industrious and dexterous mechanics. 
The laborer is rewarded by high wages in the construction 
of works of internal improvement, which are extending 
with unprecedented rapidity. Science is steadily penetrat- 

* This message treats of (i) manufactures; (2) foreign aflFairs; (3) 
French spohation claims; (4) trade with the Orient; (5) South Ameri- 
can affairs; (6) Georgia and the Cherokee Indians; (7) public revenue; 
(8) government of the District of Columbia; (9) the U. S. Bank, 

»33 



134 Andrew Jackson 

ing the recesses of nature and disclosing her secrets, while 
the ingenuity of free minds is subjecting the elements to 
the power of man and making each new conquest auxiliary 
to his comfort. By our mails, whose speed is regularly in- 
creased and whose routes are every year extended, the com- 
munication of public intelligence and private business is 
rendered frequent and safe ; the intercourse between distant 
cities, which it formerly required weeks to accomplish, is 
now effected in a few days; and in the construction of rail- 
roads and the application of steam power we have a reason- 
able prospect that the extreme parts of our country will be 
so much approximated and those most isolated by the ob- 
stacles of nature rendered so accessible as to remove an ap- 
prehension sometimes entertained that the great extent of 
the Union would endanger its permanent existence. 

If from the satisfactory view of our agriculture, manu- 
factures, and internal improvements we turn to the state of 
our navigation and trade with foreign nations and between 
the States, we shall scarcely find less cause for gratulation. 
A beneficent Providence has provided for their exercise and 
encouragement an extensive coast, indented by capacious 
bays, noble rivers, inland seas; with a country productive 
of every material for shipbuilding and every commodity for 
gainful commerce, and filled with a population active, 
intelligent, well-informed, and fearless of danger. These 
advantages are not neglected, and an impulse has lately 
been given to commercial enterprise, which fills our ship- 
yards with new constructions, encourages all the arts and 
branches of industry connected with them, crowds the 
wharves of our cities with vessels, and covers the most dis- 
tant seas with our canvas. 

Let us be grateful for these blessings to the beneficent 
Being who has conferred them, and who suffers us to in- 
dulge a reasonable hope of their continuance and extension, 
while we neglect not the means by which they may be pre- 
served. If we may dare to judge of His future designs by 
the manner in which His past favors have been bestowed, 
He has made our national prosperity to depend on the pres- 



Third Annual Message 135 

ervation of our liberties, our national force on our Federal 
Union, and our individual happiness on the maintenance of 
our State rights and wise institutions. If we are prosper- 
ous at home and respected abroad, it is because we are free, 
imited, industrious, and obedient to the laws. While we 
continue so we shall by the blessing of Heaven go on in 
the happy career we have begun, and which has brought us 
in the short period of our political existence from a popula- 
tion of three to thirteen millions; from thirteen separate 
colonies to twenty-four united States; from weakness to 
strength; from a rank scarcely marked in the scale of na- 
tions to a high place in their respect. 

This last advantage is one that has resulted in a great 
degree from the principles which have guided our inter- 
course with foreign powers since we have assumed an 
equal station among them, and hence the annual account 
which the Executive renders to the country of the manner 
in which that branch of his duties has been fulfilled proves 
instructive and salutary. 

The pacific and wise policy of our Government kept us in "^ 
a state of neutrality during the wars that have at different 
periods since our political existence been carried on by other 
powers ; but this policy, while it gave activity and extent to 
our commerce, exposed it in the same proportion to injuries 
from the belligerent nations. Hence have arisen claims of 
indemnity for those injuries. England, France, Spain, Hol- 
land, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and lately Portugal had all 
in a greater or less degree infringed our neutral rights. 
Demands for reparation were made upon all. They have 
had in all, and continue to have in some, cases a leading in- 
fluence on the nature of our relations with the powers on 
whom they were made. 

Of the claims upOn England it is unnecessary to speak 
further than to say that the state of things to which their 
prosecution and denial gave rise has been succeeded by ar- 
rangements productive of mutual good feeling and amicable 
relations between the two countries, which it is hoped will 
not be interrupted. One of these arrangements is that re- 



13^ Andrew Jackson 

lating to the colonial trade which was communicated to 
Congress at the last session; and although the short period 
during which it has been in force will not enable me to 
form an accurate judgment of its operation, there is every 
reason to believe that it will prove highly beneficial. The 
trade thereby authorized has employed to the 30th Septem- 
ber last upward of 30,000 tons of American and 15,000 
tons of foreign shipping in the outward voyages, and in 
the inward nearly an equal amount of American and 20,000 
only of foreign tonnage. Advantages, too, have resulted to 
our agricultural interests from the state of the trade be- 
tween Canada and our Territories and States bordering on 
the St. Lawrence and the Lakes which may prove more than 
equivalent to the loss sustained by the discrimination made 
to favor the trade of the northern colonies with the West 
Indies. 

After our transition from the state of colonies to that of 
an independent nation many points were found necessary to 
be settled between us and Great Britain. Among them was 
the demarcation of boundaries not described with sufficient 
precision in the treaty of peace. Some of the lines that 
divide the States and Territories of the United States from 
the British Provinces have been definitively fixed. That, 
however, which separates us from the Provinces of Canada 
and New Brunswick to the north and the east was still in 
dispute when I came into office, but I found arrangements 
made for its settlement over which I had no control. The 
commissioners who had been appointed under the provisions 
of the treaty of Ghent having been unable to agree, a con- 
vention was made with Great Britain by my immediate 
predecessor in office, with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, by which it was agreed " that the points of differ- 
ence which have arisen in the settlement of the boundary 
line between the American and British dominions, as de- 
scribed in the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, shall be 
referred, as therein provided, to some friendly sovereign or 
State, who shall be invited to investigate and make a de- 
cision upon such points of difference ;" and the King of the 



Third Annual Message 137 

Netherlands having by the late President and His Britannic 
Majesty been designated as such friendly sovereign, it be- 
came my duty to carry with good faith the agreement so 
made into full effect. To this end I caused all the measures 
to be taken which were necessary to a full exposition of our 
case to the sovereign arbiter, and nominated as minister 
plenipotentiary to his Court a distinguished citizen of the 
State most interested in the question and who had been one 
of the agents previously employed for settling the contro- 
versy. On the loth day of January last His Majesty the 
King of the Netherlands delivered to the plenipotentiaries of 
the United States and of Great Britain his written opinion 
on the case referred to him. The papers in relation to the 
subject will be communicated by a special message to the 
proper branch of the Government with the perfect confi- 
dence that its wisdom will adopt such measures as will se- 
cure an amicable settlement of the controversy without in- 
fringing any constitutional right of the States immediately 
interested. 

It affords me satisfaction to inform you that suggestions 
made by my direction to the charge d'affaires of His Bri- 
tannic Majesty to this Government have had their desired 
effect in producing the release of certain American citizens 
who were imprisoned for setting up the authority of the 
State of Maine at a place in the disputed territory under 
the actual jurisdiction of His Britannic Majesty. From 
this and the assurances I have received of the desire of 
the local authorities to avoid any cause of collision I have 
the best hopes that a good understanding will be kept 
up until it is confirmed by the final disposition of the 
subject. 

The amicable relations which now subsist between the 
United States and Great Britain, the increasing intercourse 
between their citizens, and the rapid obliteration of un- 
friendly prejudices to which former events naturally gave 
rise concurred to present this as a fit period for renewing 
our endeavors to provide against the recurrence of causes 
of irritation which in the event of war between Great Brit- 



13^ Andrew Jackson 

ain and any other power would inevitably endanger our 
peace. Animated by the sincerest desire to avoid such a 
state of things, and peacefully to secure under all possible 
circumstances the rights and honor of the country, I have 
given such instructions to the minister lately sent to the 
Court of London as will evince that desire, and if met by 
a correspondent disposition, which we can not doubt, will 
put an end to causes of collision which, without advantage 
to either, tend to estrange from each other two nations who 
have every motive to preserve not only peace, but an inter- 
course of the most amicable nature. 

In my message at the opening of the last session of Con- 
gress I expressed a confident hope that the justice of our 
claims upon France, urged as they were with perseverance 
and signal ability by our minister there, would finally be 
acknowledged. This hope has been realized. A treaty has 
been signed which will immediately be laid before the Sen- 
ate for its approbation, and which, containing stipulations 
that require legislative acts, must have the concurrence of 
both Houses before it can be carried into effect. By it the 
French Government engage to pay a sum which, if not 
quite equal to that which may be found due to our citizens, 
wnll yet, it is believed, under all circumstances, be deemed 
satisfactory by those interested. The offer of a gross sum 
instead of the satisfaction of each individual claim was ac- 
cepted because the only alternatives were a rigorous ex- 
action of the whole amount stated to be due on each claim, 
which might in some instances be exaggerated by design, 
in others overrated through error, and which, therefore, it 
would have been both ungracious and unjust to have in- 
sisted on; or a settlement by a mixed commission, to which 
the French negotiators were very averse, and which ex- 
perience in other cases had shewn to be dilatory and often 
wholly inadequate to the end. A comparatively small sum 
is stipulated on our part to go to the extinction of all claims 
by French citizens on our Government, and a reduction of 
duties on our cotton and their wines has been agreed on as 
a consideration for the renunciation of an important claim 



Third Annual Message 139 

for commercial privileges under the construction they gave 
to the treaty for the cession of Louisiana, 

Should this treaty receive the proper sanction, a source 
of irritation will be stopped that has for so many years in 
some degree alienated from each other tw^o nations who, 
from interest as well as the remembrance of early associa- 
tions, ought to cherish the most friendly relations; an en- 
couragement will be given for perseverance in the demands 
of justice by this new proof that if steadily pursued they 
will be listened to, and admonition will be offered to those 
powers, if any, which may be inclined to evade them that 
they will never be abandoned; above all, a just confidence 
will be inspired in our fellow-citizens that their Govern- 
ment will exert all the powers with which they have in- 
vested it in support of their just claims upon foreign na- 
tions ; at the same time that the frank acknowledgment and 
provision for the payment of those which were addressed 
to our equity, although unsupported by legal proof, affords 
a practical illustration of our submission to the divine rule 
of doing to others what we desire they should do unto us, 

Sweden and Denmark having made compensation for the 
irregularities committed by their vessels or in their ports 
to the perfect satisfaction of the parties concerned, and hav- 
ing renewed the treaties of commerce entered into with 
them, our political and commercial relations with those 
powers continue to be on the most friendly footing. 

With Spain our differences up to the 22d of February, 
1 8 19, were settled by the treaty of Washington of that 
date, but at a subsequent period our commerce with the 
States formerly colonies of Spain on the continent of Amer- 
ica was annoyed and frequently interrupted by her public 
and private armed ships. They captured many of our ves- 
sels prosecuting a lawful commerce and sold them and their 
cargoes, and at one time to our demands for restoration 
and indemnity opposed the allegation that they were taken 
in the violation of a blockade of all the ports of those States. 
This blockade was declaratory only, and the inadequacy of 
the force to maintain it was so manifest that this allegation 



14° Andrew Jackson 

was varied to a charge of trade in contraband of war. This, 
in its turn, was also found untenable, and the minister 
whom I sent with instructions to press for the reparation 
that was due to our injured fellow-citizens has transmitted 
an answer to his demand by which the captures are declared 
to have been legal, and are justified because the independ- 
ence of the States of America never having been acknowl- 
edged by Spain she had a right to prohibit trade with them 
under her old colonial laws. This ground of defense was 
contradictory, not only to those which had been formerly 
alleged, but to the uniform practice and established laws of 
nations, and had been abandoned by Spain herself in the 
convention which granted indemnity to British subjects for 
captures made at the same time, under the same circum- 
stances, and for the same allegations with those of which 
we complain. 

I, however, indulge the hope that further reflection will 
lead to other views, and feel confident that when His Cath- 
olic Majesty shall be convinced of the justice of the claims 
his desire to preserve friendly relations between the two 
countries, which it is my earnest endeavor to maintain, will 
induce him to accede to our demand. I have therefore dis- 
patched a special messenger with instructions to our minis- 
ter to bring the case once more to his consideration, to the 
end that if (which I can not bring myself to believe) the 
same decision (that can not but be deemed an unfriendly 
denialof justice) should be persisted in the matter may be- 
fore your adjournment be laid before you, the constitutional 
judges of what is proper to be done when negotiation for 
redress of injury fails. 

The conclusion of a treaty for indemnity with France 
seemed to present a favorable opportunity to renew our 
claims of a similar nature on other powers, and particularly 
in the case of those upon Naples, more especially as in the 
course of former negotiations with that power our failure 
to induce France to render us justice was used as an argu- 
ment against us. The desires of the merchants, who were 
the principal sufferers, have therefore been acceded to, and 



Third Annual Message 141 

a mission has been instituted for the special purpose of ob- 
taining for them a reparation already too long delayed. 
This measure having been resolved on, it was put in exe- 
cution without waiting for the meeting of Congress, be- 
cause the state of Europe created an apprehension of events 
that might have rendered our application ineffectual. 

Our demands upon the Government of the Two Sicilies 
are of a peculiar nature. The injuries on which they are 
founded are not denied, nor are the atrocity and perfidy 
under which those injuries were perpetrated attempted to 
be extenuated. The sole ground on which indemnity has 
been refused is the alleged illegality of the tenure by which 
the monarch who made the seizures held his crown. This 
defense, always unfounded in any principle of the law of 
nations, now universally abandoned, even by those powers 
upon whom the responsibility for acts of past rulers bore 
the most heavily, will unquestionably be given up by His 
Sicilian Majesty, whose counsels will receive an impulse 
from that high sense of honor and regard to justice which 
are said to characterize him; and I feel the fullest confi- 
dence that the talents of the citizen commissioned for that 
purpose will place before him the just claims of our injured 
citizens in such a light as will enable me before your ad- 
journment to announce that they have been adjusted and 
secured. Precise instructions to the effect of bringing the 
negotiation to a speedy issue have been given, and will be 
obeyed. 

In the late blockade of Terceira some of the Portuguese 
fleet captured several of our vessels and committed other 
excesses, for which reparation was demanded, and I was 
on the point of dispatching an armed force to prevent any 
recurrence of a similar violence and protect our citizens in 
the prosecution of their lawful commerce when official as- 
surances, on which I relied, made the sailing of the ships 
unnecessary. Since that period frequent promises have been 
made that full indemnity shall be given for the injuries in- 
flicted and the losses sustained. In the performance there 
has been some, perhaps unavoidable delay; but I have the 



142 Andrew Jackson 

fullest confidence that my earnest desire that this business 
may at once be closed, which our minister has been in- 
structed strongly to express, will very soon be gratified. 
I have the better ground for this hope from the evidence 
of a friendly disposition which that Government has shown 
by an actual reduction in the duty on rice the produce of 
our Southern States, authorizing the anticipation that this 
important article of our export will soon be admitted on 
the same footing with that produced by the most favored 
nation. 

With the other powers of Europe we have fortunately 
had no cause of discussions for the redress of injuries. 
With the Empire of the Russias our political connection is 
of the most friendly and our commercial of the most liberal 
kind. We enjoy the advantages of navigation and trade 
given to the most favored nation, but it has not yet suited 
their policy, or perhaps has not been found convenient from 
other considerations, to give stability and reciprocity to 
those privileges by a commercial treaty. The ill health of 
the minister last year charged with making a proposition 
for that arrangement did not permit him to remain at St. 
Petersburg, and the attention of that Government during 
the whole of the period since his departure having been oc- 
cupied by the war in which it was engaged, we have been 
assured that nothing could have been effected by his pres- 
ence. A minister will soon be nominated, as well to effect 
this important object as to keep up the relations of amity 
and good understanding of which we have received so many 
assurances and proofs from His Imperial Majesty and the 
Emperor his predecessor. 

The treaty with Austria is opening to us an important 
trade with the hereditary dominions of the Emperor, the 
value of which has been hitherto little known, and of course 
not sufficiently appreciated. While our commerce finds an 
entrance into the south of Germany by means of this treaty, 
those wc liave formed with the Henseatic towns and Prus- 
sia and others now in negotiation will open that vast coun- 
try to the enterprising spirit of our merchants on the north 



Third Annual Message 143 

— a country abounding in all the materials for a mutually 
beneficial commerce, filled with enlightened and industrious 
inhabitants, holding an important place in the politics of 
Europe, and to which we owe so many valuable citizens. 
The ratification of the treaty with the Porte was sent to be 
exchanged by the gentleman appointed our charge d'affaires 
to that Court. Some difiiculties occurred on his arrival, but 
at the date of his last official dispatch he supposed they had 
been obviated and that there was every prospect of the ex- 
change being speedily effected. 

This finishes the connected view I have thought it proper 
to give of our political and commercial relations in Europe. 
Every effort in my power will be continued to strengthen 
and extend them by treaties founded on principles of the 
most perfect reciprocity of interest, neither asking nor con- 
ceding any exclusive advantage, but liberating as far as it 
lies in my power the activity and industry of our fellow- 
citizens from the shackles which foreign restrictions may 
impose. 

To China and the East Indies our commerce continues in 
its usual extent, and with increased facilities which the 
credit and capital of our merchants afford by substituting 
bills for payments in specie. A daring outrage having been 
committed in those seas by the plunder of one of our mer- 
chantmen engaged in the pepper trade at a port in Sumatra, 
and the piratical perpetrators belonging to tribes in such a 
state of society that the usual course of proceedings between 
civilized nations could not be pursued, I forthwith dis- 
patched a frigate with orders to require immediate satis- 
faction for the injury and indemnity to the sufferers. 

Few changes have taken place in our connections with 
the independent States of America since my last communi- 
cation to Congress. The ratification of a commercial treaty 
with the United Republics of Mexico has been for some 
time under deliberation in their Congress, but was still un- 
decided at the date of our last dispatches. The unhappy 
civil commotions that have prevailed there were undoubt- 
edly the cause of the delay, but as the Government is now 



144 Andrew Jackson 

said to be tranquillized we may hope soon to receive the 
ratification of the treaty and an arrangement for the de- 
marcation of the boundaries between us. In the meantime, 
an important trade has been opened with mutual benefit 
from St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, by caravans to the 
interior Provinces of Mexico. This commerce is protected 
in its progress through the Indian countries by the troops 
of the United States, which have been permitted to escort 
the caravans beyond our boundaries to the settled part of 
the Mexican territory. 

From Central America I have received assurances of the 
most friendly kind and a gratifying application for our 
good offices to remove a supposed indisposition toward that 
Government in a neighboring State. This application was 
immediately and successfully complied with. They gave us 
also the pleasing intelligence that differences which had pre- 
vailed in their internal affairs had been peaceably adjusted. 
Our treaty with this Republic continues to be faithfully ob- 
served, and promises a great and beneficial commerce be- 
tween the two countries — a commerce of the greatest im- 
portance if the magnificent project of a ship canal through 
the dominions of that State from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific Ocean, now in serious contemplation, shall be executed. 

I have great satisfaction in communicating the success 
which has attended the exertions of our minister in Co- 
lombia to procure a very considerable reduction in the duties 
on our flour in that Republic. Indemnity also has been 
stipulated for injuries received by our merchants from il- 
legal seizures, and renewed assurances are given that the 
treaty between the two countries shall be faithfully ob- 
served. 

Chili and Peru seem to be still threatened with civil com- 
motions, and until they shall be settled disorders may nat- 
urally be apprehended, requiring the constant presence of a 
naval force in the Pacific Ocean to protect our fisheries and 
guard our commerce. 

The disturbances that took place in the Empire of Brazil 
previously to and immediately consequent upon the abdica- 



Third Annual Message HS 

tion of the late Emperor necessarily suspended any effectual 
application for the redress of some past injuries suffered by 
our citizens from that Government, while they have been the 
cause of others, in which all foreigners seem to have par- 
ticipated. Instructions have been given to our minister there 
to press for indemnity due for losses occasioned by these ir- 
regularities, and to take care that our fellow-citizens shall 
enjoy all the privileges stipulated in their favor by the 
treaty lately made between the two powers, all which the 
good intelligence that prevails between our minister at Rio 
Janeiro and the Regency gives us the best reason to expect. 

I should have placed Buenos Ayres in the list of South 
American powers in respect to which nothing of importance 
affecting us was to be communicated but for occurrences 
which have lately taken place at the Falkland Islands, in 
which the name of that Republic has been used to cover 
with a show of authority acts injurious to our commerce 
and to the property and liberty of our fellow-citizens. In 
the course of the present year one of our vessels, engaged 
in the pursuit of a trade which we have always enjoyed 
without molestation, has been captured by a band acting, 
as they pretend, under the authority of the Government of 
Buenos Ayres, I have therefore given orders for the dis- 
patch of an armed vessel to join our squadron in those 
seas and aid in affording all lawful protection to our trade 
which shall be necessary, and shall without delay send a 
minister to inquire into the nature of the circumstances and 
also of the claim, if any, that is set up by that Government 
to those islands. In the meantime, I submit the case to the 
consideration of Congress, to the end that they may clothe 
the Executive with such authority and means as they may 
deem necessary for providing a force adequate to the com- 
plete protection of our fellow-citizens fishing and trading in 
those seas. 

This rapid sketch of our foreign relations, it is hoped, 
fellow-citizens, may be of some use in so much of your leg- 
islation as may bear on that important subject, while it 
affords to the country at large a source of high gratification 



14^ Andrew Jackson 

in the contemplation of our political and commercial con- 
nection with the rest of the world. At peace with all; 
having subjects of future difference with few, and those sus- 
ceptible of easy adjustment ; extending our commerce grad- 
ually on all sides and on none by any but the most liberal 
and mutually beneficial means, we may, by the blessing of 
Providence, hope for all that national prosperity which can 
be derived from an intercourse with foreign nations, guided 
by those eternal principles of justice and reciprocal good 
will which are binding as well upon States as the individuals 
of whom they are composed. 

I have great satisfaction in making this statement of our 
affairs, because the course of our national policy enables me 
to do it without any indiscreet exposure of what in other 
governments is usually concealed from the people. Having 
none but a straightforward, open course to pursue, guided 
by a single principle that will bear the strongest light, we 
have happily no political combinations to form, no alliances 
to entangle us, no complicated interests to consult, and in 
subjecting all we have done to the consideration of our 
citizens and to the inspection of the world we give no ad- 
vantage to other nations and lay ourselves open to no in- 
jury. 

It may not be improper to add that to preserve this 
state of things and give confidence to the world in the in- 
tegrity of our designs all our consular and diplomatic 
agents are strictly enjoined to examine well every cause of 
complaint preferred by our citizens, and while they urge 
with proper earnestness those that are well founded, to 
countenance none that are unreasonable or unjust, and to en- 
join on our merchants and navigators the strictest obedi- 
ence to the laws of the countries to which they resort, and a 
course of conduct in their dealings that may support the 
character of our nation and render us respected abroad. 

Connected with this subject, I must recommend a revisal 
of our consular laws. Defects and omissions have been 
discovered in their operation that ought to be remedied and 
supplied. For your further information on this subject I 



Third Annual Message i47 

have directed a report to be made by the Secretary of State, 
which I shall hereafter submit to your consideration. 

The internal peace and security of our confederated 
States is the next principal object of the General Govern- 
ment. Time and experience have proved that the abode of 
the native Indian within their limits is dangerous to their 
peace and injurious to himself. In accordance with my 
recommendation at a former session of Congress, an appro- 
priation of half a million of dollars was made to aid the 
voluntary removal of the various tribes beyond the limits of 
the States. At the last session I had the happiness to an- 
nounce that the Chickasaws and Choctaws had accepted 
the generous offer of the Government and agreed to re- 
move beyond the Mississippi River, by which the whole of 
the State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama 
will be freed from Indian occupancy and opened to a civ- 
ilized population. The treaties with these tribes are in a 
course of execution, and their removal, it is hoped, will be 
completed in the course of 1832. 

At the request of the authorities of Georgia the regis- 
tration of Cherokee Indians for emigration has been re- 
sumed, and it is confidently expected that one-half, if not 
two-thirds, of that tribe will follow the wise example of 
their more westerly brethren. Those who prefer remain- 
ing at their present homes will hereafter be governed by 
the laws of Georgia, as all her citizens are, and cease to be 
the objects of peculiar care on the part of the General Gov- 
ernment. 

During the present year the attention of the Government 
has been particularly directed to those tribes in the power- 
ful and growing State of Ohio, where considerable tracts of 
the finest lands were still occupied by the aboriginal pro- 
prietors. Treaties, either absolute or conditional, have 
been made extinguishing the whole Indian title to the res- 
ervations in that State, and the time is not distant, it is 
hoped, when Ohio will be no longer embarrassed with the 
Indian population. The same measures will be extended to 
Indiana as soon as there is reason to anticipate success. It 



H^ Andrew Jackson 

is confidently believed that perseverance for a few years in 
the present policy of the Government will extinguish the In- 
dian title to all lands lying within the States composing our 
Federal Union, and remove beyond their limits every In- 
dian who is not willing to submit to their laws. Thus will 
all conflicting claims to jurisdiction between the States and 
the Indian tribes be put to rest. It is pleasing to reflect 
that results so beneficial, not only to the States immediately 
concerned, but to the harmony of the Union, will have been 
accomplished by measures equally advantageous to the In- 
dians. What the native savages become when surrounded 
by a dense population and by mixing with the whites may 
be seen in the miserable remnants of a few Eastern tribes, 
deprived of political and civil rights, forbidden to make con- 
tracts, and subjected to guardians, dragging out a wretched 
existence, without excitement, without hope, and almost 
without thought. 

But the removal of the Indians beyond the limits and 
jurisdiction of the States does not place them beyond the 
reach of pliilanthropic aid and Christian instruction. On 
the contrary, those whom philanthropy or religion may in- 
duce to live among them in their new abode will be more 
free in the exercise of their benevolent functions than if 
they had remained within the limits of the States, embar- 
rassed by their internal regulations. Now subject to no 
control but the superintending agency of the General Gov- 
ernment, exercised with the sole view of preserving peace, 
they may proceed unmolested in the interesting experiment 
of gradually advancing a community of American Indians 
from barbarism to the habits and enjoyments of civilized 
life. 

Among the happiest effects of the improved relations of 
our Republic has been an increase of trade, producing a cor- 
responding increase of revenue beyond the most sanguine 
anticipations of the Treasury Department. 

The state of the public finances will be fully shown by 
the Secretary of the Treasury in the report which he will 
presently lay before you. I will here, however, congratu- 



Third Annual Message H9 

late you upon their prosperous condition. The revenue re- 
ceived in the present year will not fall short of $27,700,000, 
and the expenditures for all objects other than the public 
debt will not exceed $14,700,000. The payment on account 
of the principal and interest of the debt during the year will 
exceed $16,500,000, a greater sum than has been applied to 
that object out of the revenue in any year since the enlarge- 
ment of the sinking fund except the two years following im- 
mediately thereafter. The amount which will have been ap- 
plied to the public debt from the 4th of March, 1829, to the 
1st of January next, which is less than three years since the 
Administration has been placed in my hands, will exceed 
$40,000,000. 

From the large importations of the present year it may 
be safely estimated that the revenue which will be received 
into the Treasury from that source during the next year, 
with the aid of that received from the public lands, will 
considerably exceed the amount of the receipts of the pres- 
ent year; and it is believed that with the means which the 
Government will have at its disposal from various sources, 
which will be fully stated by the proper Department, the 
whole of the public debt may be extinguished, either by re- 
demption or purchase, within the four years of my Admin- 
istration. We shall then exhibit the rare example of a great 
nation, abounding in all the means of happiness and secur- 
ity, altogether free from debt. 

The confidence with which the extinguishment of the 
public debt may be anticipated presents an opportunity for 
carrying into effect more fully the policy in relation to im- 
port duties which has been recommended in my former mes- 
sages. A modification of the tariff which shall produce a re- 
duction of our revenue to the wants of the Government and 
an adjustment of the duties on imports with a view to equal 
justice in relation to all our national interests and to the 
counteraction of foreign policy so far as it may be injurious 
to those interests, is deemed to be one of the principal ob- 
jects which demand the consideration of the present Con- 
gress. Justice to the interests of the merchant as well as 



» 

15° Andrew Jackson 

the manufacturer requires that material reductions in the 
import duties be prospective; and unless the present Con- 
gress shall dispose of the subject the proposed reductions 
can not properly be made to take effect at the period when 
the necessity for the revenue arising from present rates 
shall cease. It is therefore desirable that arrangements be > 
adopted at your present session to relieve the people from 
unnecessary taxation after the extinguishment of the public 
debt. In the exercise of that spirit of concession and con- 
ciliation which has distinguished the friends of our Union 
in all great emergencies, it is believed that this object may 
be effected without injury to any national interest. 

In my annual message of December, 1829, I had the 
honor to recommend the adoption of a more liberal policy 
than that which then prevailed toward unfortunate debtors 
to the Government, and I deem it my duty again to invite 
your attention to this subject. 

Actuated by similar views, Congress at their last session 
passed an act for the relief of certain insolvent debtors of 
the United States, but the provisions of that law have not 
been deemed such as were adequate to that relief to this un- 
fortunate class of our fellow-citizens which may be safely 
extended to them. The points in which the law appears to 
be defective will be particularly communicated by the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, and I take pleasure in recommend- 
ing such an extension of its provisions as will unfetter the 
enterprise of a valuable portion of our citizens and restore 
to them the means of usefulness to themselves and the com- 
munity. While deliberating on this subject I would also 
recommend to your consideration the propriety of so modi- 
fying the laws for enforcing the payment of debts due either 
to the public or to individuals suing in the courts of the 
United States as to restrict the imprisonment of the per- 
son to cases of fraudulent concealment of property. The 
personal liberty of the citizen seems too sacred to be held, 
as in many cases it now is, at the will of a creditor to whom 
he is willing to surrender all the means he has of discharg- 
ing his debt. 



Third Annual Message 151 

The reports from the Secretaries of the War and Navy 
Departments and from the Postmaster-General, which ac- 
company this message, present satisfactory views of the op- 
erations of the Departments respectively under their charge, 
and suggest improvements which are worthy of and to 
which I invite the serious attention of Congress. Certain 
defects and omissions having been discovered in the opera- 
tion of the laws respecting patents, they are pointed out in 
the accompanying report from the Secretary of State, 

I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Fed- 
eral Constitution giving the election of President and Vice- 
President to the people and limiting the service of the 
former to a single term. So important do I consider these 
changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in accord- 
ance with my sense of duty, omit to press them upon the 
consideration of a new Congress. For my views more at 
large, as well in relation to these points as to the disquali- 
fication of members of Congress to receive an office from a 
President in whose election they have had an official agency, 
which I proposed as a substitute, I refer you to my former 
messages. 

Our system of public accounts is extremely complicated, 
and it is believed may be much improved. Much of the 
present machinery and a considerable portion of the expen- 
diture of public money may be dispensed with, while greater 
facilities can be afforded to the liquidation of claims upon 
the Government and an examination into their justice and 
legality quite as efficient as the present secured. With a 
view to a general reform in the system, I recommend the 
subject to the attention of Congress. 

I deem it my duty again to call your attention to the con- 
dition of the District of Columbia. It was doubtless wise in 
the framers of our Constitution to place the people of this 
District under the jurisdiction of the General Government, 
but to accomplish the objects they had in view it is not nec- 
essary that this people should be deprived of all the privi- 
leges of self-government. Independently of the difficulty of 
inducing the representatives of distant States to turn their 



152 Andrew Jackson 

attention to projects of laws which are not of the highest 
interest to their constituents, they are not individually, nor 
in Congress collectively, well qualified to legislate over the 
local concerns of this District. Consequently its interests 
are much neglected, and the people are almost afraid to 
present their grievances, lest a body in which they are not 
represented and which feels little sympathy in their local 
relations should in its attempt to make laws for them do 
more harm than good. Governed by the laws of the States 
whence they were severed, the two shores of the Potomac 
within the 10 miles square have different penal codes — not 
the present codes of Virginia and Maryland, but such as 
existed in those States at the time of the cession to the 
United States. As Congress will not form a new code, and 
as the people of the District can not make one for them- 
selves, they are virtually under two governments. Is it not 
just to allow them at least a Delegate in Congress, if not a 
local legislature, to make laws for the District, subject to 
the approval or rejection of Congress? I earnestly recom- 
mend the extension to them of every political right which 
their interests require and which may be compatible with 
the Constitution. 

The extension of the . judiciary system of the United 
States is deemed to be one of the duties of the Government. 
One-fourth of the States in the Union do not participate 
in the benefits of a circuit court. To the States of Indiana, 
Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, ad- 
mitted into the Union since the present judicial system was 
organized, only a district court has been allowed. If this 
be sufficient, then the circuit courts already existing in 
eighteen States ought to be abolished ; if it be not sufficient, 
the defect ought to be remedied, and these States placed on 
the same footing with the other members of the Union. It 
was on this condition and on this footing that they entered 
the Union, and they may demand circuit courts as a mat- 
ter not of concession, but of right. I trust that Congress 
will not adjourn leaving this anomaly in our system. 

Entertaining the opinions heretofore expressed in rela- 



Third Annual Message 153 

tion to the Bank of the United States as at present organ- 
ized, I felt it my duty in my former messages frankly to dis- 
close them, in order that the attention of the Legislature and 
the people should be seasonably directed to that important 
subject, and that it might be considered and finally disposed 
of in a manner best calculated to promote the ends of the 
Constitution and subserve the public interests. Having thus 
conscientiously discharged a constitutional duty, I deem it 
proper on this occasion, without a more particular reference 
to the views of the subject then expressed, to leave it for the 
present to the investigation of an enlightened people and 
their representatives. 

In conclusion permit me to invoke that Power which sup- 
erintends all governments to infuse into your deliberations 
at this important crisis of our history a spirit of mutual for- 
bearance and conciliation. In that spirit was our Union 
formed, and in that spirit must it be preserved. 



Veto Message — Bank of the United 

States.* 

(July lo, 1832.) 

To the Senate: The bill " to modify and continue " the 
act entitled " An act to incorporate the subscribers to the 
Bank of the United States " was presented to me on the 
4th July instant. Having considered it with that solemn 
regard to the principles of the Constitution which the day 
was calculated to inspire, and come to the conclusion that 
it ought not to become a law, I herewith return it to the 
Senate, in which it originated, with my objections. 

* The history of the Bank of the United States is largely the history 
of the United States during the first third of the nineteenth century. 
Sumner gives the best brief (though somewhat hostile) account of 
the Bank in his Andrew Jackson, Ch. XL, but the reader must turn to 
the friends of the Bank for their version of its affairs, and to the general 
historians of the period. (See Bibliography.) Jackson opposed the 
recharter — as stated in this veto message — because (i) the Bank was 
a monopoly, therefore harmful to the country, whatever bonus paid 
the Government; (2) one-fifth of its stockholders were foreigners; (3) 
banks could pay to the Bank of the United States in branch bank 
drafts, a privilege, denied to individuals; (4) the States could tax the 
stock of the Bank owned by their citizens and thus drive the stock 
out of the country; (5) the few stockholders left in the country could 
control the Bank; (6) the Bank's charter was unconstitutional; (7) the 
Bank's business was pxempt from taxation; (8) the Bank was said to 
be mismanaged; (9) a better fiscal agent could be devised; (10) the 
Bank favored the rich and discriminated against the poor. 

Senator White, of Tennessee, remarks Benton, "exalted the merit 
of the message above all the acts of General Jackson's life, and claimed 
for it a more enduring fame and deeper gratitude than for the greatest 
of his victories; . . . and such, in my opinion, will be the judgment of 
posterity, if furnished with the material to appreciate the circum- 
stances under which he acted when signing the message which was 
to decide the question of supremacy between the Bank and the Gov- 
ernment." Thirty Years' View, I., p. 265. 

■54 



Veto Message ^55 

A bank of the United States is in many respects con- 
venient for the Government and useful to the people. En- 
tertaining this opinion, and deeply impressed with the be- 
lief that some of the powers and privileges possessed by the 
existing bank are unauthorized by the Constitution, sub- 
versive of the rights of the States, and dangerous to the lib- 
erties of the people, I felt it my duty at an early period of 
my Administration to call the attention of Congress to the 
practicability of organizing an institution combining all its 
advantages and obviating these objections. I sincerely re- 
gret that in the act before me I can perceive none of those 
modifications of the bank charter which are necessary, in 
my opinion, to make it compatible with justice, with sound 
policy, or with the Constitution of our country. 

The present corporate body, denominated the president, 
directors, and company of the Bank of the United States, 
will have existed at the time this act is intended to take 
efifect twenty years. It enjoys an exclusive privilege of 
banking under the authority of the General Government, a 
monopoly of its favor and support, and, as a necessary con- 
sequence, almost a monopoly of the foreign and domestic 
exchange. The powers, privileges, and favors bestowed 
upon it in the original charter, by increasing the value of the 
stock far above its par value, operated as a gratuity of many 
millions to the stockholders. 

An apology may be found for the failure to guard against 
this result in the consideration that the effect of the origi- 
nal act of incorporation could not be certainly foreseen at 
the time of its passage. The act before me proposes another 
gratuity to the holders of the same stock, and in many cases 
to the same men, of at least seven millions more. This do- 
nation finds no apology in any uncertainty as to the effect 
of the act. On all hands it is conceded that its passage will 
increase at least 20 or 30 per cent more the market price of 
the stock, subject to the payment of the annuity of $200,000 
per year secured by the act, thus adding in a moment one- 
fourth to its par value. It is not our own citizens only who 
are to receive the bounty of our Government. More than 



15^ Andrew Jackson 

eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreign- 
ers. By this act the American Republic proposes virtually 
to make them a present of some millions of dollars. For 
these gratuities to foreigners and to some of our own opu- 
lent citizens the act secures no equivalent whatever. They 
are the certain gains of the present stockholders under the 
operation of this act, after making full allowance for the 
payment of the bonus. 

Every monopoly and all exclusive privileges are granted 
at the expense of the public, which ought to receive a fair 
equivalent. The many millions which this act proposes to 
bestow on the stockholders of the existing bank must come 
directly or indirectly out of the earnings of the American 
people. It is due to them, therefore, if their Government 
sell monopolies and exclusive privileges, that they should 
at least exact for them as much as they are worth in open 
market. The value of the monopoly in this case may be 
correctly ascertained. The twenty-eight millions of stock 
would probably be at an advance of 50 per cent, and com- 
mand in market at least $42,000,000, subject to the pay- 
ment of the present bonus. The present value of the mo- 
nopoly, therefore, is $17,000,000, and this the act proposes 
to sell for three millions, payable in fifteen annual install- 
ments of $200,000 each. 

It is not conceivable how the present stockholders can 
have any claim to the special favor of the Government. The 
present corporation has enjoyed its monopoly during the 
period stipulated in the original contract. If we must have 
such a corporation, why should not the Government sell out 
the whole stock and thus secure to the people the full market 
value of the privileges granted ? Why should not Congress 
create and sell twenty-eight millions of stock, incorporating 
the purchasers with all the powers and privileges secured in 
this act and putting the premium upon the sales into the 
Treasury? 

But this act does not permit competition in the purchase 
of this monopoly. It seems to be predicated on the errone- 
ous idea that the present stockholders have a prescriptive 



Veto Message i57 

right not only to the favor but to the bounty of Govern- 
ment. It appears that more than a fourth part of the stock 
is held by foreigners and the residue is held by a few hun- 
dred of our own citizens, chiefly of the richest class. For 
their benefit does this act exclude the whole American peo- 
ple from competition in the purchase of this monopoly and 
dispose of it for many millions less than it is worth. This 
seems the less excusable because some of our citizens not 
now stockholders petitioned that the door of competition 
might be opened, and offered to take a charter on terms 
much more favorable to the Government and country. 

But this proposition, although made by men whose ag- 
gregate wealth is believed to be equal to all the private 
stock in the existing bank, has been set aside, and the bounty 
of our Government is proposed to be again bestowed on the 
few who have been fortunate enough to secure the stock 
and at this moment wield the power of the existing insti- 
tution. I can not perceive the justice or policy of this 
course. If our Government must sell monopolies, it would 
seem to be its duty to take nothing less than their full value, 
and if gratuities must be made once in fifteen or twenty 
years let them not be bestowed on the subjects of a foreign 
government nor upon a designated and favored class of 
men in our own country. It is but justice and good policy, 
as far as the nature of the case will admit, to confine our 
favors to our own fellow-citizens, and let each in his turn 
enjoy an opportunity to profit by our bounty. In the bear- 
ings of the act before me upon these points I find ample 
reasons why it should not become a law. 

It has been urged as an argument in favor of recharter- 
ing the present bank that the calling in its loans will pro- 
duce great embarrassment and distress. The time allowed 
to close its concerns is ample, and if it has been well man- 
aged its pressure will be light, and heavy only in case its 
management has been bad. If, therefore, it shall produce 
distress, the fault will be its own, and it would furnish a 
reason against renewing a power which has been so obvi- 
ously abused. But will there ever be a time when this rea- 



15^ Andrew Jackson 



son will be less powerful? To acknowledge its force is to 
admit that the bank ought to be perpetual, and as a conse- 
quence the present stockholders and those inheriting their 
rights as successors be established a privileged order, clothed 
both with great political power and enjoying immense pe- 
cuniary advantages from their connection with the Govern- 
ment. 

The modifications of the existing charter proposed by this 
act are not such, in my view, as make it consistent with the 
rights of the States or the liberties of the people. The qual- 
ification of the right of the bank to hold real estate, the lim- 
itation of its power to establish branches, and the power re- 
served to Congress to forbid the circulation of small notes 
are restrictions comparatively of little value or importance. 
All the objectionable principles of the existing corporation, 
and most of its odious features, are retained w^ithout alle- 
viation. 

The fourth section provides " that the notes or bills of 
the said corporation, although the same be, on the faces 
thereof, respectively made payable at one place only, shall 
nevertheless be received by the said corporation at the bank 
or at any of the offices of discount and deposit thereof if ten- 
dered in liquidation or payment of any balance or balances 
due to said corporation or to such office of discount and de- 
posit from any other incorporated bank." This provision 
secures to the State banks a legal privilege in the Bank of 
the United States which is withheld from all private citi- 
zens. If a State bank in Philadelphia owe the Bank of the 
United States and have notes issued by the St. Louis 
branch, it can pay the debt with those notes, but if a mer- 
chant, mechanic, or other private citizen be in like circum- 
stances he can not by law pay his debt with those notes, but 
must sell them at a discount or send them to St. Louis to 
be cashed. This boon conceded to the State banks, though 
not unjust in itself, is most odious because it does not 
measure out equal justice to the high and the low, the rich 
and the poor. To the extent of its practical effect it is a 
bond of union among the banking establishments of the 



Veto Message 159 

nation, erecting them into an interest separate from that 
of the people, and its necessary tendency is to unite the Bank 
of the United States and the State banks in any mea- 
sure which may be thought conducive to their common 
interest. 

The ninth section of the act recognizes principles of worse 
tendency than any provision of the present charter. 

It enacts that " the cashier of the bank shall annually re- 
port to the Secretary of the Treasury the names of all stock- 
holders who are not resident citizens of the United States, 
and on the application of the treasurer of any State shall 
make out and transmit to such treasurer a list of stockhold- 
ers residing in or citizens of such State, with the amount of 
stock owned by each." Although this provision, taken in 
connection with a decision of the Supreme Court, surren- 
ders, by its silence, the right of the States to tax the banking 
institutions created by this corporation under the name of 
branches throughout the Union, it is evidently intended to 
be construed as a concession of their right to tax that portion 
of the stock which may be held by their own citizens and 
residents. In this light, if the act becomes a law, it will be 
understood by the States, who will probably proceed to levy 
a tax equal to that paid upon the stock of banks incorporated 
by themselves. In some States that tax is now i per cent, 
either on the capital or on the shares, and that may be as- 
sumed as the amount which all citizen or resident stock- 
holders would be taxed under the operation of this act. As 
it is only the stock held in the States and not that employed 
within them which would be subject to taxation, and as the 
names of foreign stockholders are not to be reported to 
the treasurers of the States, it is obvious that the stock held 
by them will be exempt from this burden. Their annual 
profits will therefore be i per cent more than the citizen 
stockholders, and as the annual dividends of the bank may 
be safely estimated at 7 per cent, the stock will be worth 
10 or 15 per cent more to foreigners than to citizens of the 
United States. To appreciate the effects which this state 
of things will produce, we must take a brief review of the 



i6o Andrew Jackson 

operations and present condition of the Bank of the United 
States. 

By documents submitted to Congress at the present ses- 
sion it appears that on the ist of January, 1832, of the 
twenty-eight millions of private stock in the corporation, 
$8,405,500 were held by foreigners, mostly of Great Britain. 
The amount of stock held in the nine Western and South- 
western States is $140,200, and in the four Southern States 
is $5,623,100, and in the Middle and Eastern States is about 
$13,522,000. The profits of the bank in 183 1, as shown 
in a statement to Congress, were about $3,455,598; of this 
there accrued in the nine Western States about $1,640,048; 
in the four Southern States about $352,507, and in the Mid- 
dle and Eastern States about $1,463,041. As little stock is 
held in the West, it is obvious that the debt of the people in 
that section to the bank is principally a debt to the Eastern 
and foreign stockholders; that the interest they pay upon it 
is carried into the Eastern States and into Europe, and that 
it is a burden upon their industry and a drain of their cur- 
rency, which no country can bear without inconvenience and 
occasional distress. To meet this burden and equalize the 
exchange operations of the bank, the amount of specie drawn 
from those States through its branches within the last two 
years, as shown by its official reports, was about $6,000,000. 
More than half a million of this amount does not stop in the 
Eastern States, but passes on to Europe to pay the dividends 
of the foreign stockholders. In the principle of taxation 
recognized by this act the Western States find no adequate 
compensation for this perpetual burden on their industry 
and drain of their currency. The branch bank at Mobile 
made last year $95,140, yet under the provisions of this act 
the State of Alabama can raise no revenue from these prof- 
itable operations, because not a share of the stock is held by 
any of her citizens. Mississippi and Missouri are in the 
same condition in relation to the branches at Natchez and 
St. Louis, and such, in a greater or less degree, is the con- 
dition of every Western State. The tendency of the plan of 
taxation which this act proposes will be to place the whole 



Veto Message i6i 

United States in the same relation to foreign countries 
which the Western States now bear to the Eastern. When 
by a tax on resident stockholders the stock of this bank is 
made worth lo or 15 per cent more to foreigners than to 
residents, most of it will inevitably leave the country. 

Thus will this provision in its practical effect deprive the 
Eastern as well as the Southern and Western States of the 
means of raising a revenue from the extension of business 
and great profits of this institution. It will make the Amer- 
ican people debtors to aliens in nearly the whole amount due 
to this bank, and send across the Atlantic from two to five 
millions of specie every year to pay the bank dividends. 

In another of its bearings this provision is fraught with 
danger. Of the twenty-five directors of this bank five are 
chosen by the Government and twenty by the citizen stock- 
holders. From all voice in these elections the foreign stock- 
holders are excluded by the charter. In proportion, there- 
fore, as the stock is transferred to foreign holders the extent 
of suffrage in the choice of directors is curtailed. Already 
is almost a third of the stock in foreign hands and not rep- 
resented in elections. It is constantly passing out of the 
country, and this act will accelerate its departure. The en- 
tire control of the institution would necessarily fall into the 
hands of a few citizen stockholders, and the ease with which 
the object would be accomplished would be a temptation to 
designing men to secure that control in their own hands by 
monopolizing the remaining stock. There is danger that a 
president and directors would then be able to elect them- 
selves from year to year, and without responsibility or con- 
trol manage the whole concerns of the bank during the ex- 
istence of its charter. It is easy to conceive that great evils 
to our country and its institutions might flow from such a 
concentration of power in the hands of a few men irre- 
sponsible to the people. 

Is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a 
bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country ? 
The president of the bank has told us that most of the State 
banks exist by its forbearance. Should its influence become 



1 62 Andrew Jackson 

concentered, as it may under the operation of siicli an act as 
this, in the hands of a self-elected directory whose interests 
are identified with those of the foreign stockholders, will 
there not be cause to tremble for the purity of our elections 
in peace and for the independence of our country in war? 
Their power would be great whenever they might choose 
to exert it; but if this monopoly were regularly renew^ed 
every fifteen or twenty years on terms proposed by them- 
selves, they might seldom in peace put forth their strength 
to influence elections or control the affairs of the nation. 
But if any private citizen or public functionary should inter- 
pose to curtail its powers or prevent a renewal of its privi- 
leges, it can not be doubted that he would be made to feel its 
influence. 

Should the stock of the bank principally pass into the 
hands of the subjects of a foreign country, and w-e should 
unfortunately become involved in a war with that country, 
what would be our condition ? Of the course wdiich would 
be pursued by a bank almost wholly owned by the subjects 
of a foreign power, and managed by those whose interests, 
if not affections, would run in the same direction there can 
be no doubt. All its operations within would be in aid of 
the hostile fleets and armies without. Controlling our cur- 
rency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands 
of our citizens in dependence, it would be more formidable 
and dangerous than the naval and military power of the 
enemy. 

If we must have a bank with private stockholders, every 
consideration of sound policy and every impulse of Ameri- 
can feeling admonishes that it should be purely American. 
Its stockholders should be composed exclusively of our own 
citizens, who at least ought to be friendly to our Govern- 
ment and willing to support it in times of difficulty and 
danger. So abundant is domestic capital that competition in 
subscribing for the stock of local banks has recently led al- 
most to riots. To a bank exclusively of American stock- 
holders, possessing the powers and privileges granted by 
this act, subscriptions for $200,000,000 could be readily ob- 



Veto Message 163 

tained. Instead of sending abroad the stock of the bank in 
which the Government must deposit its funds and on which 
it must rely to sustain its credit in times of emergency, it 
would rather seem to be expedient to prohibit its sale to 
aliens under penalty of absolute forfeiture. 

It is maintained by the advocates of the bank that its con- 
stitutionality in all its features ought to be considered as 
settled by precedent and by the decision of the Supreme 
Court. To this conclusion I can not assent. Mere precedent 
is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be re- 
garded as deciding questions of constitutional power except 
where the acquiescence of the people and the States can be 
considered as well settled. So far from this being the case 
on this subject, an argument against the bank might be based 
on precedent. One Congress, in 1791, decided in favor of 
a bank ; another, in 181 1, decided against it. One Congress, 
in 181 5, decided against a bank; another, in 18 16, decided 
in its favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the 
precedents drawn from that source were equal. If we re- 
sort to the States, the expressions of legislative, judicial, 
and executive opinions against the bank have been probably 
to those in its favor as 4 to i. There is nothing in prece- 
dent, therefore, which, if its authority were admitted, ought 
to weigh in favor of the act before me. 
(^ If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole 
ground of this act, it ought not to control the coordinate 
authorities of this Government. The Congress, the Exec- 
utive, and the Court must each for itself be guided by its 
own opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer who 
takes an oath to support the Constitution swears that he 
will support it as he understands it, and not as it is under- 
stood by others. It is as much the duty of the House of 
Representatives, of the Senate, and ,oi the President to 
decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or resolution 
which may be presented to them for passage or approval 
as it is of the supreme judges when it may be brought be- 
fore them for judicial decision. The opinion of the judges 
has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of 



1^4 Andrew Jackson 

Congress has over the judges, and on that point the Presi- 
dent is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme 
Court must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Con- 
gress or the Executive when acting in their legislative ca- 
pacities, but to have only such influence as the force of their 
reasoning may deserve.^ 

But in the case relied upon the Supreme Court have not 
decided that all the features of this corporation are com- 
patible with the Constitution. It is true that the court have 
said that the law incorporating the bank is a constitutional 
exercise of power by Congress; but taking into view the 
whole opinion of the court and the reasoning by which they 
have come to that conclusion, I understand them to have 
decided that inasmuch as a bank is an appropriate means for 
carrying into effect the enumerated powers of the General 
Government, therefore the law incorporating it is in ac- 
cordance with that provision of the Constitution which de- 
clares that Congress shall have power " to make all laws 
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying those 
powers into execution." Having satisfied themselves that 
the word " necessary " in the Constitution means " tiecd- 
ful," " requisite," " essential," " conducive to," and that " a 
bank " is a convenient, a useful, and essential instrument 
in the prosecution of the Government's " fiscal operations," 
they conclude that to " use one must be within the discretion 
of Congress " and that " the act to incorporate the Bank of 
the United States is a law made in pursuance of the Consti- 
tution;" " but," say they, "where the law is not prohibited 
and is really calculated to effect any of the objects intrusted 
to the Government, to undertake here to inquire into the de- 
gree of its necessity would be to pass the line which circum- 
scribes the judicial department and to tread on legislative 
ground" 

The principle here affirmed is that the " degree of its 
necessity," involving all the details of a banking institution, 
is a question exclusively for legislative consideration. A 
bank is constitutional, but it is the province of the Legis- 
lature to determine whether this or that particular power. 



Veto Message 165 

privilege, or exemption is " necessary and proper " to en- 
able the bank to discharge its duties to the Government, 
and from their decision there is no appeal to the courts of 
justice. Under the decision of the Supreme Court, there- 
fore, it is the exclusive province of Congress and the Pres- 
ident to decide whether the particular features of this act 
are necessary and proper in order to enable the bank to per- 
form conveniently and efficiently the public duties assigned 
to it as a fiscal agent, and therefore constitutional, or unnec- 
cessary and improper, and therefore unconstitutional. 

Without commenting on the general principle affirmed by 
the Supreme Court, let us examine the details of this act in 
accordance with the rule of legislative action which they 
have laid down. It will be found that many of the powers 
and privileges conferred on it can not be supposed neces- 
sary for the purpose for which it is proposed to be created, 
and are not, therefore, means necessary to attain the end 
in view, and consequently not justified by the Constitution. 

The original act of incorporation, section 21, enacts 
" that no other bank shall be established by any future law 
of the United States during the continuance of the corpora- 
tion hereby created, for which the faith of the United States 
is hereby pledged: Provided, Congress may renew existing 
charters for banks within the District of Columbia not in- 
creasing the capital thereof, and may also establish any 
other bank or banks in said District with capitals not ex- 
ceeding in the whole 6,cxdo,ooo if they shall deem it ex- 
pedient." This provision is continued in force by the act 
before me fifteen years from the 3d of March, 1836. 

If Congress possessed the power to establish one bank, 
they had power to establish more than one if in their opin- 
ion two or more banks had been "necessary" to facilitate the 
execution of the powers delegated to them in the Constitu- 
tion. If they possessed the power to establish a second bank, 
it was a power derived from the Constitution to be exercised 
from time to time, and at any time when the interests of the 
country or the emergencies of the Government might make 
it expedient. It was possessed by one Congress as well as 



1 66 Andrew Jackson 

another, and by all Congresses alike, and alike at every ses- 
sion. But the Congress of 1816 have taken it away from 
their successors for twenty years, and the Congress of 1832 
proposes to abolish it for fifteen years more. It can not be 
" necessary " or " proper " for Congress to barter away or 
divest themselves of any of the powers vested in them by 
the Constitution to be exercised for the public good. It is 
not " necessary " to the efficiency of the bank, nor is it 
" proper " in relation to themselves and their successors. 
They may properly use the discretion vested in them, but 
they may not limit the discretion of their successors. This 
restriction on themselves and grant of a monopoly to the 
bank is therefore unconstitutional. 

In another point of view this provision is a palpable at- 
tempt to amend the Constitution by an act of legislation. 
The Constitution declares that " the Congress shall have 
power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatso- 
ever " over the District of Columbia. Its constitutional 
power, therefore, to establish banks in the District of Co- 
lumbia and increase their capital at will is unlimited and 
uncontrollable by any other power than that which gave au- 
thority to the Constitution. Yet this act declares that Con- 
gress shall not increase the capital of existing banks, nor 
create other banks with capitals exceeding in the whole $6,- 
000,000. The Constitution declares that Congress shall 
have power to exercise exclusive legislation over this Dis- 
trict " in all cases zvhatsoever," and this act declares they 
shall not. Which is the supreme law of the land? This 
provision can not be " necessary " or " proper " or consti- 
tutional unless the absurdity be admitted that whenever it 
be " necessary and proper " in the opinion of Congress they 
have a right to barter away one portion of the powers vested 
in them by the Constitution as a means of executing the rest. 

On two subjects only does the Constitution recognize in 
Congress the power to grant exclusive privileges or monop- 
olies. It declares that " Congress shall have power to pro- 
mote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for 
limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive riglit to 



Veto Message 167 

their respective writings and discoveries." Out of this ex- 
press delegation of power have grown our laws of patents 
and copyrights. As the Constitution expressly delegates to 
Congress the power to grant exclusive privileges in these 
cases as the means of executing the substantive power " to 
promote the progress of science and useful arts," it is con- 
sistent with the fair rules of construction to conclude that 
such a power was not intended to be granted as a means of 
accomplishing any other end. On every other subject which 
comes within the scope of Congressional power there is an 
ever-living discretion in the use of proper means, which 
can not be restricted or abolished without an amendment of 
the Constitution. Every act of Congress, therefore, which 
attempts by grants of monopolies or sale of exclusive priv- 
ileges for a limited time, or a time without limit, to restrict 
or extinguish its own discretion in the choice of means to 
execute its delegated powers is equivalent to a legislative 
amendment of the Constitution, and palpably unconstitu- 
tional. 

This act authorizes and encourages transfers of its stock 
to foreigners and grants them an exemption from all State 
and national taxation. So far from being " necessary and 
proper " that the bank should possess this power to make it 
a safe and efficient agent of the Government in its fiscal op- 
erations, it is calculated to convert the Bank of the United 
States into a foreign bank, to impoverish our people in time 
of peace, to disseminate a foreign influence through every 
section of the Republic, and in war to endanger our inde- 
pendence. 

The several States reserved the power at the formation 
of the Constitution to regulate and control titles and trans- 
fers of real property, and most, if not all, of them have laws 
disqualifying aliens from acquiring or holding lands within 
their limits. But this act, in disregard of the undoubted 
right of the States to prescribe such disqualifications, gives 
to aliens stockholders in this bank an interest and title, as 
members of the corporation, to all the real property it may 
acquire within any of the States of this Union. This privi- 



1 68 Andrew Jackson 

lege granted to aliens is not " necessary " to enable the banl^ 
to perform its public duties, nor in any sense " proper,'' be- 
cause it is vitally subversive of the rights of the States. 

The Government of the United States have no constitu- 
tional power to purchase lands within the States except " for 
the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and 
other needful buildings," and even for these objects only 
" by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the 
same shall be." By making themselves stockholders in the 
bank and granting to the corporation the power to purchase 
lands for other purposes they assume a power not granted 
in the Constitution and grant to others what they do not 
themselves possess. It is not necessary to the receiving, 
safe-keeping, or transmission of the funds of the Govern- 
ment that the bank should possess this power, and it is 
not proper that Congress should thus enlarge the powers 
delegated to them in the Constitution. 

The old Bank of the United States possessed a capital of 
only $11,000,000, which was found fully sufficient to enable 
it with dispatch and safety to perform all the functions re- 
quired of it by the Government. The capital of the present 
bank is $35,000,000 — at least twenty-four more than ex- 
perience has proved to be necessary to enable a bank to per- 
form its public functions. The public debt which existed 
during the period of the old bank and on the establishment 
of the new has been nearly paid off, and our revenue will 
soon be reduced. This increase of capital is therefore not 
for public but for private purposes. 

The Government is the only " proper " judge where its 
agents should reside and keep their offices, because it best 
knows where their presence will be " necessary ^ It can 
not, therefore, be *' necessary " or " proper " to authorize 
the bank to locate branches where it pleases to perform the 
public service, without consulting the Government, and con- 
trary to its will. The principle laid down by the Supreme 
Court concedes that Congress can not establish a bank for 
purposes of private speculation and gain, but only as a means 
of executing the delegated powers of the General Govern- 



Veto Message 169 

ment. By the same principle a branch bank can not consti- 
tutionally be established for other than public purposes. 
The power which this act gives to establish two branches in 
any State, without the injunction or request of the Govern- 
ment and for other than public purposes, is not " neces- 
sary " to the due execution of the powers delegated to Con- 
gress. 

The bonus which is exacted from the bank is a confession 
upon the face of the act that the powers granted by it are 
greater than are " necessary " to its character of a fiscal 
agent. The Government does not tax its officers and agents 
for the privilege of serving it. The bonus of a million and 
a half required by the original charter and that of three mil- 
lions proposed by this act are not exacted for the privilege 
of giving ** the necessary facilities for transferring the pub- 
lic funds from place to place within the United States or 
the Territories thereof, and for distributing the same in pay- 
ment of the public creditors without charging commission 
or claiming allowance on account of the difference of ex- 
change," as required by the act of incorporation, but for 
something more beneficial to the stockholders. The origi- 
nal act declares that it (the bonus) is granted " in consider- 
ation of the exclusive privileges and benefits conferred by 
this act upon the said bank," and the act before me declares 
it to be " in consideration of the exclusive benefits and priv- 
ileges continued by this act to the said corporation for fif- 
teen years, as aforesaid." It is therefore for " exclusive 
privileges and benefits " conferred for their own use and 
emolument, and not for the advantage of the Government, 
that a bonus is exacted. These surplus powers for which 
the bank is required to pay can not surely be " necessary " 
to make it the fiscal agent of the Treasury. If they were, 
the exaction of a bonus for them would not be " proper." 

It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of exe- 
cuting the constitutional power " to coin money and regu- 
late the value thereof." Congress have established a mint 
to coin money and passed laws to regulate the value thereof. 
The money so coined, with its value so regulated, and 



17° Andrew Jackson 

such foreign coins as Congress may adopt are the only 
currency known to the Constitution. But if they have 
other power to regulate the currency, it was conferred 
to be exercised by themselves, and not to be trans- 
ferred to a corporation. If the bank be established for that 
purpose, with a charter unalterable without its consent. Con- 
gress have parted with their power for a term of years, dur- 
ing which the Constitution is a dead letter. It is neither 
necessary nor proper to transfer its legislative power to 
such a bank, and therefore unconstitutional. 

By its silence, considered in connection with the decision 
of the Supreme Court in the case of McCulloch against the 
State of Maryland, this act takes from the States the power 
to tax a portion of the banking business carried on within 
their limits, in subversion of one of the strongest barriers 
which secured them against Federal encroachments. Bank- 
ing, like farming, manufacturing, or any other occupation 
or profession, is a business, the right to follow which is not 
originally derived from the laws. Every citizen and every 
company of citizens in all of our States possessed the right 
until the State legislatures deemed it good policy to prohibit 
private banking by law. If the prohibitory State laws were 
now repealed, every citizen would again possess the right. 
The State banks are a qualified restoration of the right 
which has been taken away by the laws against banking, 
guarded by such provisions and limitations as in the opinion 
of the State legislatures the public interest requires. These 
corporations, unless there be an exemption in their charter, 
are, like private bankers and banking companies, subject 
to State taxation. The manner in which these taxes shall be 
laid depends wholly on legislative discretion. It may be 
upon the bank, upon the stock, upon the profits, or in any 
other mode which the sovereign power shall will. 

Upon the formation of the Constitution the States 
guarded their taxing power with peculiar jealousy. They 
surrendered it only as it regards imports and exports. In re- 
lation to every other object within their jurisdiction, whether 
persons, property, business, or professions, it was secured 



Veto Message 171 

in as ample a manner as it was before possessed. All per- 
sons, though United States officers, are liable to a poll tax 
by the States within which they reside. The lands of the 
United States are liable to the usual land tax, except in the 
new States, from whom agreements that they will not tax 
unsold lands are exacted when they are admitted into the 
Union. Horses, wagons, any beasts or vehicles, tools, or 
property belonging to private citizens, though employed in 
the service of the United States, are subject to State taxa- 
tion. Every private business, whether carried on by an offi- 
cer of the General Government or not, whether it be mixed 
with public concerns or not, even if it be carried on by the 
Government of the United States itself, separately or in 
partnership, falls within the scope of the taxing power of 
the State. Nothing comes more fully within it than banks 
and the business of banking, by whomsoever instituted and 
carried on. Over this whole subject-matter it is just as 
absolute, unlimited, and uncontrollable as if the Constitution 
had never been adopted, because in the formation of that 
instrument it was reserved without qualification. 

The principle is conceded that the States can not right- 
fully tax the operations of the General Government. They 
can not tax the money of the Government deposited in the 
State banks, nor the agency of those banks in remitting it ; 
but will any man maintain that their mere selection to per- 
form this public service for the General Government would 
exempt the State banks and their ordinary business from 
State taxation ? Had the United States instead of establish- 
ing a bank at Philadelphia, employed a private banker to 
keep and transmit their funds, would it have deprived Penn- 
sylvania of the right to tax his bank and his usual banking 
operations ? It will not be pretended. Upon what principle, 
then, are the banking establishments of the Bank of the 
United States and their usual banking operations to be ex- 
empted from taxation ? It is not their public agency or the 
deposits of the Government which the States claim a right to 
tax, but their banks and their banking powers, instituted 
and exercised within State jurisdiction for their private 



172 Andrew Jackson 

emolument — those powers and privileges for which they pay 
a bonus, and which the States tax in their own banks. The 
exercise of these powers within a State, no matter by whom 
or under what authority, whether by private citizens in their 
original right, by corporate bodies created by the States, by 
foreigners or the agents of foreign governments located 
within their limits, forms a legitimate object of State tax- 
ation. From this and like sources, from the persons, prop- 
erty, and business that are found residing, located, or car- 
ried on under their jurisdiction, must the States, since the 
surrender of their right to raise a revenue from imports and 
exports, draw all the money necessary for the support of 
their governments and the maintenance of their independ- 
ence. There is no more appropriate subject of taxation than 
banks, banking, and bank stocks, and .none to which the 
States ought more pertinaciously to cling. 

It can not be necessary to the character of the bank as a 
fiscal agent of the Government that its private business 
should be exempted from that taxation to which all the 
State banks are liable, nor can I conceive it " proper " that 
the substantive and most essential powers reserved by the 
States shall be thus attacked and annihilated as a means of 
executing the powers delegated to the General Government, 
It may be safely assumed that none of those sages who 
had an agency in forming or adopting our Constitution ever 
imagined that any portion of the taxing power of the States 
not prohibited to them nor delegated to Congress was to 
be swept away and annihilated as a means of executing cer- 
tain powers delegated to Congress. 

If our power over means is so absolute that the Supreme 
Court will not call in question the constitutionality of an 
act of Congress the subject of which " is not prohibited, and 
is really calculated to effect any of the objects intrusted to 
the Government," although, as in the case before me, it 
takes away powers expressly granted to Congress and rights 
scrupulously reserved to the States, it becomes us to pro- 
ceed in our legislation with the utmost caution. Though 
not directly, our own powers and the rights of the States 



Veto Message 173 

may be indirectly legislated away in the use of means to 
execute substantive powers. We may not enact that Con- 
gress shall not have the power of exclusive legislation over 
the District of Columbia, but we may pledge the faith of 
the United States that as a means of executing other powers 
it shall not be exercised for twenty years or forever. We 
may not pass an act prohibiting the States to tax the bank- 
ing business carried on within their limits, but we may, as 
a means of executing our powers over other objects, place 
that business in the hands of our agents and then declare 
it exempt from State taxation in their hands. Thus may 
our own powers and the rights of the States, which we can 
not directly curtail or invade, be frittered away and extin- 
guished in the use of means employed by us to execute other 
powers. That a bank of the United States, competent to all 
the duties which may be required by the Government, might 
be so organized as not to infringe on our own delegated 
powers or the reserved rights of the States I do not enter- 
tain a doubt. Had the Executive been called upon to fur- 
nish the project of such an institution, the duty would have 
been cheerfully performed. In the absence of such a call it 
was obviously proper that he should confine himself to 
pointing out those prominent features in the act presented 
which in his opinion make it incompatible with the Consti- 
tution and sound policy. A general discussion will now 
take place, eliciting new light and settling important princi- 
ples; and a new Congress, elected in the midst of such dis- 
cussion, and furnishing an equal representation of the peo- 
ple according to the last census, will bear to the Capitol the 
verdict of public opinion, and, I doubt not, bring this impor- 
tant question to a satisfactory result. 

Under such circumstances the bank comes forward and 
asks a renewal of its charter for a term of fifteen years upon 
conditions which not only operate as a gratuity to the stock- 
holders of many millions of dollars, but will sanction any 
abuses and legalize any encroachments. 

Suspicions are entertained and charges are made of gross 
abuse and violation of its charter. An investigation un- 



174 Andrew Jackson 

willingly conceded and so restricted in time as necessarily 
to make it incomplete and unsatisfactory discloses enough 
to excite suspicion and alarm. In the practices of the prin- 
cipal bank partially unveiled, in the absence of important 
witnesses, and in numerous charges confidently made and 
as yet wholly uninvestigated there was enough to induce a 
majority of the committee of investigation — a committee 
which was selected from the most able and honorable mem- 
bers of the House of Representatives — to recommend a 
suspension of further action upon the bill and a prosecu- 
tion of the inquiry. As the charter had yet four years to 
run, and as a renewal now was not necessary to the success- 
ful prosecution of its business, it was to have been expected 
that the bank itself, conscious of its purity and proud of its 
character, would have withdrawn its application for the 
present, and demanded the severest scrutiny into all its 
transactions. In their declining to do so there seems to be 
an additional reason why the functionaries of the Govern- 
ment should proceed with less haste and more caution in 
the renewal of their monopoly. 

The bank is professedly established as an agent of the 
executive branch of the Government, and its constitutional- 
ity is maintained on that ground. Neither upon the pro- 
priety of present action nor upon the provisions of this act 
was the Executive consulted. It has had no opportunity to 
say that it neither needs nor wants an agent clothed with 
such powers and favored by such exemptions. There is 
nothing in its legitimate functions which makes it neces- 
sar}^ or proper. Whatever interest or influence, whether 
public or private, has given birth to this act, it can not be 
found either in the wishes or necessities of the executive 
department, by wliich present action is deemed premature, 
and the powers conferred upon its agent not only unneces- 
sary, but dangerous to the Government and country. 

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often 
bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Dis- 
tinctions in society will always exist under every just gov- 
ernment. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can 



t,''»<^'wr 



Veto Message i75 

not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoy- 
ment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior in- 
dustry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled 
to protection by law ; but when the laws undertake to add 
to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, 
to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make 
the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble 
members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers 
— who have neither the time nor the means of securing like 
favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the in- 
justice of their Government. There are no necessary evils 
in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it 
would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does 
it rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, 
the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. 
In the act before me there seems to be a wide and unnec- ?yU.'<.><jsuif'^* 
essary departure from these just principles. a-f :^ASj "^^-n^ 

Nor is our Government to be maintained or our Union -^^/^ y^ 
preserved by invasions of the rights and powers of the sev- j ^ ^ 

eral States. In thus attempting to make our General Gov- ^^^"^ ^^) ' '' 
ernment strong we make it weak. Its true strength con- 
sists in leaving individuals and States as much as possible to 
themselves — in making itself felt, not in its power, but in its 
beneficence ; not in its control, but in its protection ; not in 
binding the States more closely to the center, but leaving 
each to move unobstructed in its proper orbit. 

Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the diffi- 
culties our Government now encounters and most of the 
dangers which impend over our Union have sprung from 
an abandonment of the legitimate objects of Government 
by our national legislation, and the adoption of such prin- 
ciples as are embodied in this act. Many of our rich men 
have not been content with equal protection and equal bene- 
fits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of 
Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires we have 
in the results of our legislation arrayed section against sec- 
tion, interest against interest, and man against man, in a 
fearful commotion which threatens to shake the foundations 




< 



17^ Andrew Jackson 

of our Union. It is time to pause in our career to review 
our principles, and if possible revive that devoted patriot- 
ism and spirit of compromise which distinguished the sages 
of the Revolution and the fathers of our Union. If we can 
not at once, in justice to interests vested under improvident 
legislation, make our Government what it ought to be, we 
can at least take a stand against all new grants of monopo- 
lies and exclusive privileges, against any prostitution of our 
Government to the advancement of the few at the expense 
of the many, and in favor of compromise and gradual re- 
form in our code of laws and system of political economy. 
I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained 
by my fellow-citizens, I shall be grateful and happy ; if not, 
I shall find in the motives which impel me ample grounds 
for contentment and peace. In the difficulties which sur- 
round us and the dangers which threaten our institutions 
there is cause for neither dismay nor alarm. For relief and 
deliverance let us firmly rely on that kind Providence which 
I am sure watches with peculiar care over the destinies of 
our Republic, and on the intelligence and wisdom of our 
countrymen. Through His abundant goodness and their 
patriotic devotion our liberty and Union will be preserved. 



Fourth Annual Message.* 

(December 4, 1832.) 

Fellow-Citi^cns of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives: It gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon your 
return to the seat of Government for the purpose of dis- 
charging your duties to the people of the United States. 
Although the pestilence which had traversed the Old World 
has entered our limits and extended its ravages over much 
of our land, it has pleased Almighty God to mitigate its 
severity and lessen the number of its victims compared with 
those who have fallen in most other countries over which it 
has spread its terrors. Notwithstanding this visitation, our 
country presents on every side marks of prosperity and hap- 
piness unequaled, perhaps, in any other portion of the world. 
If we fully appreciate our comparative condition, existing 
causes of discontent will appear unworthy of attention, and, 
with hearts of thankfulness to that divine Being who has 
filled our cup of prosperity, we shall feel our resolution 
strengthened to preserve and hand down to posterity that 
liberty and that union which we have received from our 
fathers, and which constitute the sources and the shield of 
all our blessings. 

The relations of our country continue to present the same 
picture of amicable intercourse that I had the satisfaction to 

* This message may most profitably be read in connection with the 
general history of the country at the time (see Bibliography). It re- 
views, (i) international affairs; (2) state of trade and commerce; (3) 
affairs with South America; (4) public finance; (5) extinction of the 
public debt; (6) domestic manufactures; (7) the tariff; (8) the Bank 
of the United States; (0) disposition of the public funds; (10) internal 
improvement; (11) Indian affairs; (12) the Federal judiciary; (13) 
powers of the Federal Government. 

177 



17^ Andrew Jackson 

hold up to your view at the opening of your last session. 
The same friendly professions, the same desire to partici- 
pate in our flourishing commerce, the same disposition to 
refrain from injuries unintentionally offered, are, with few 
exceptions, evinced by all nations with whom we have any 
intercourse. This desirable state of things may be mainly 
ascribed to our undeviating practice of the rule which has 
long guided our national policy, to require no exclusive 
privileges in commerce and to grant none. It is daily pro- 
ducing its beneficial effect in the respect shown to our flag, 
the protection of our citizens and their property abroad, and 
in the increase of our navigation and the extension of our 
mercantile operations. The returns which have been made 
out since we last met will show an increase during the last 
preceding year of more than 80,000 tons in our shipping 
and of near $40,000,000 in the aggregate of our imports 
and exports. 

Nor have we less reason to felicitate ourselves on the posi- 
tion of our political than of our commercial concerns. They 
remain in the state in which they were when I last addressed 
you — a state of prosperity and peace, the effect of a wise 
attention to the parting advice of the revered Father of his 
Country on this subject, condensed into a maxim for the 
use of posterity by one of his most distinguished succes- 
sors — to cultivate free commerce and honest friendship with 
all nations, but to make entangling alliances with none. A 
strict adherence to this policy has kept us aloof from the 
perplexing questions that now agitate the European world 
and have more than once deluged those countries with 
blood. Should those scenes unfortunately recur, the parties 
to the contest may count on a faithful performance of the 
duties incumbent on us as a neutral nation, and our own 
citizens may equally rely on the firm assertion of their 
neutral rights. 

With the nation that was our earliest friend and ally in 
the infancy of our political existence the most friendly rela- 
tions have subsisted through the late revolutions of its Gov- 
ernment, and, from the events of the last, promise a per- 



Fourth Annual Message i79 

manent duration. It has made an approximation in some 
of its political institutions to our own, and raised a mon- 
arch to the throne who preserves, it is said, a friendly rec- 
ollection of the period during which he acquired among our 
citizens the high consideration that could then have been 
produced by his personal qualifications alone. 

Our commerce with that nation is gradually assuming a 
mutually beneficial character, and the adjustment of the 
claims of our citizens has removed the only obstacle there 
was to an intercourse not only lucrative, but productive of 
literary and scientific improvement. 

From Great Britain I have the satisfaction to inform you 
that I continue to receive assurances of the most amicable 
disposition, which have on my part on all proper occasions 
been promptly and sincerely reciprocated. The attention of 
that Government has latterly been so much engrossed by 
matters of a deeply interesting domestic character that we 
could not press upon it the renewal of negotiations which 
had been unfortunately broken ofif by the unexpected re- 
call of our minister, who had commenced them with some 
hopes of success. My great object was the settlement of 
questions which, though now dormant, might hereafter be 
revived under circumstances that would endanger the good 
understanding which it is the interest of both parties to pre- 
serve inviolate, cemented as it is by a community of lan- 
guage, manners, and social habits, and by the high obliga- 
tions we owe to our British ancestors for many of our 
most valuable institutions and for that system of represen- 
tative government which has enabled us to preserve and 
improve them. 

The question of our northeastern boundary still remains 
unsettled. In my last annual message I explained to you 
the situation in which I found that business on my coming 
into office, and the measures I thought it my duty to pursue 
for asserting the rights of the United States before the sov- 
ereign who had been chosen by my predecessor to determine 
the question, and also the manner in which he had disposed 
of it. A special message to the Senate in their executive 



i8o Andrew Jackson 

capacity afterwards brought before them the question 
whether they would advise a submission to the opinion of 
the sovereign arbiter. That body having considered the 
award as not obHgatory and advised me to open a further 
negotiation, the proposition was immediately made to the 
British Government, but the circumstances to which I have 
alluded have hitherto prevented any answer being given to 
the overture. Early attention, however, has been promised 
to the subject, and every effort on my part will be made for 
a satisfactory settlement of this question, interesting to the 
Union generally, and particularly so to one of its members. 

The claims of our citizens on Spain are not yet acknowl- 
edged. On a closer investigation of them than appears to 
have heretofore taken place it was discovered that some of 
these demands, however strong they might be upon the 
equity of that Government, were not such as could be made 
the subject of national interference; and faithful to the 
principle of asking nothing but what was clearly right, ad- 
ditional instructions have been sent to modify our demands 
so as to embrace those only on which, according to the laws 
of nations, we had a strict right to insist. An inevitable 
delay in procuring the documents necessary for this review 
of the merits of these claims retarded this operation until 
an unfortunate malady which has afflicted His Catholic 
Majesty prevented an examination of them. Being now for 
the first time presented in an unexceptionable form, it is con- 
fidently hoped that the application will be successful. 

I have the satisfaction to inform you that the application 
I directed to be made for the delivery of a part of the arch- 
ives of Florida, which had been carried to The Havannah, 
has produced a royal order for their delivery, and that meas- 
ures have been taken to procure its execution. 

By the report of the Secretary of State communicated to 
you on the 25th June last you were informed of the condi- 
tional reduction obtained by the minister of the United 
States at Madrid of the duties on tonnage levied on Ameri- 
can shipping in the ports of Spain. The condition of that 
reduction having been complied with on our part by the 



Fourth Annual Message iSi 

act passed the 13th of July last, I have the satisfaction to 
inform you that our ships now pay no higher nor other 
duties in the continental ports of Spain than are levied on 
their national vessels. 

The demands against Portugal for illegal captures in 
the blockade of Terceira have been allowed to the full 
amount of the accounts presented by the claimants, and pay- 
ment was promised to be made in three installments. The 
first of these has been paid; the second, although due, had 
not at the date of our last advices been received, owing, it 
was alleged, to embarrassments in the finances consequent 
on the civil war in which that nation is engaged. 

The payments stipulated by the convention with Den- 
mark have been punctually made, and the amount is ready 
for distribution among the claimants as soon as the board, 
now sitting, shall have performed their functions. 

I regret that by the last advices from our charge d'affaires 
at Naples that Government had still delayed the satisfaction 
due to our citizens, but at that date the effect of the last 
instructions was not known. Dispatches from thence are 
hourly expected, and the result will be communicated to you 
without delay. 

With the rest of Europe our relations, political and com- 
mercial, remain unchanged. Negotiations are going on to 
put on a permanent basis the liberal system of commerce 
now carried on between us and the Empire of Russia. The 
treaty concluded with Austria is executed by His Imperial 
Majesty with the most perfect good faith, and as we have 
no diplomatic agent at his Court he personally inquired 
into and corrected a proceeding of some of his subaltern 
officers to the injury of our consul in one of his ports. 

Our treaty with the Sublime Porte is producing its ex- 
pected effects on our commerce. New markets are opening 
for our commodities and a more extensive range for the 
employment of our ships. A slight augmentation of the 
duties on our commerce, inconsistent with the spirit of the 
treaty, had been imposed, but on the representation of our 
charge d'affaires it has been promptly withdrawn, and we 



il 



1 82 Andrew Jackson 

now enjoy the trade and navigation of the Black Sea and of 
all the ports belonging to the Turkish Empire and Asia on 
the most perfect equality with all foreign nations. 

I wish earnestly that in announcing to you the continu- 
ance of friendship and the increase of a profitable com- 
mercial intercourse with Mexico, with Central America, and 
the States of the South I could accompany it with the as- 
surance that they all are blessed with that internal tran- 
quillity and foreign peace which their heroic devotion to the 
cause of their independence merits. In Mexico a sanguin- 
ary struggle is now carried on, which has caused some em- 
barrassment to our commerce, but both parties profess the 
most friendly disposition toward us. To the termination of 
this contest we look for the establishment of that secure in- 
tercourse so necessary to nations whose territories are con- 
tiguous. How important it will be to us we may calculate 
from the fact that even in this unfavorable state of things 
our maritime commerce has increased, and an internal trade 
by caravans from St. Louis to Santa Fe, under the protection 
of escorts furnished by the Government, is carried on to 
great advantage and is daily increasing. The agents pro- 
vided for by the treaty, with this power to designate the 
boundaries which it established, have been named on our 
part, but one of the evils of the civil war now raging there 
has been that the appointment of those with whom they 
were to cooperate has not yet been announced to us. 

The Government of Central America has expelled from 
its territory the party which some time since disturbed its 
peace. Desirous of fostering a favorable disposition toward 
us, which has on more than one occasion been evinced by 
this interesting country, I made a second attempt in this 
year to establish a diplomatic intercourse with them ; but 
the death of the distinguished citizen whom I had appointed 
for that purpose has retarded the execution of measures 
from which I hoped much advantage to our commerce. 
The union of the three States which formed the Republic of 
Colombia has been dissolved, but they all, it is believed, con-r 
sider themselves as separately bound by the treaty which 



Fourth Annual Message 183 

was made in their federal capacity. The minister accredited 
to the federation continues in that character near the Gov- 
ernment of New Granada, and hopes were entertained that 
a new union would be formed between the separate States, 
at least for the purposes of foreign intercourse. Our min- 
ister has been instructed to use his good offices, whenever 
they shall be desired, to produce the reunion so much to be 
wished for, the domestic tranquillity of the parties, and the 
security and facility of foreign commerce. 

Some agitations naturally attendant on an infant reign 
have prevailed in the Empire of Brazil, which have had 
the usual effect upon commercial operations, and while they 
suspended the consideration of claims created on similar 
occasions, they have given rise to new complaints on the 
part of our citizens. A proper consideration for calamities 
and difficulties of this nature has made us less urgent and 
peremptory in our demands for justice than duty to our 
fellow-citizens would under other circumstances have re- 
quired. But their claims are not neglected, and will on all 
proper occasions be urged, and it is hoped with effect. 

I refrain from making any communication on the sub- 
ject of our affairs with Buenos Ayres, because the negotia- 
tion communicated to you in my last annual message was 
at the date of our last advices still pending and in a state 
that would render a publication of the details inexpedient. 

A treaty of amity and commerce has been formed with 
the Republic of Chili, which, if approved by the Senate, 
will be laid before you. That Government seems to be es- 
tablished, and at peace with its neighbors; and its ports 
being the resorts of our ships which are employed in the 
highly important trade of the fisheries, this commercial con- 
vention can not but be of great advantage to our fellow- 
citizens engaged in that perilous but profitable business. 

Our commerce with the neighboring State of Peru, owing 
to the onerous duties levied on our principal articles of ex- 
port, has been on the decline, and all endeavors to procure 
an alteration have hitherto proved fruitless. With Bolivia 
we have yet no diplomatic intercourse, and the continual 



1^4 Andrew Jackson 

contests carried on between it and Peru have made me de- 
fer until a more favorable period the appointment of any 
agent for that purpose. 

An act of atrocious piracy having been committed on one 
of our trading ships by the inhabitants of a settlement on 
the west coast of Sumatra, a frigate was dispatched with 
orders to demand satisfaction for the injury if those who 
committed it should be found to be members of a regular 
government, capable of maintaining the usual relations with 
foreign nations; but if, as it was supposed and as they 
proved to be, they were a band of lawless pirates, to inflict 
such a chastisement as would deter them and others from 
like aggressions. This last was done, and the effect has 
been an increased respect for our flag in those distant seas 
and additional security for our commerce. 

In the view I have given of our connection with foreign 
powers allusions have been made to their domestic disturb- 
ances or foreign wars, to their revolutions or dissensions. 
It may be proper to observe that this is done solely in cases 
where those events affect our political relations with them, 
or to show their operation on our commerce. Further than 
this it is neither our policy nor our right to interfere. Our 
best wishes on all occasions, our good offices when required, 
will be afforded to promote the domestic tranquillity and 
foreign peace of all nations with whom we have any inter- 
course. Any intervention in their affairs further than this, 
even by the expression of an official opinion, is contrary to 
our principles of international policy, and will always be 
avoided. 

The report which the Secretary of the Treasury will in 
due time lay before you will exhibit the national finances 
in a highly prosperous state. Owing to the continued suc- 
cess of our commercial enterprise, which has enabled the 
merchants to fulfill their engagements with the Government, 
the receipts from customs during the year will exceed the 
estimate presented at the last session, and with the other 
means of the Treasury will prove fully adequate not only to 
meet the increased expenditures resulting from the large 



Fourth Annual Message 185 

appropriations made by Congress, but to provide for the 
payment of all the public debt which is at present redeem- 
able. It is now estimated that the customs will yield to the 
Treasury during the present year upward of $28,000,000. 
The public lands, however, have proved less productive than 
was anticipated, and according to present information will 
not much exceed two millions. The expenditures for all 
objects other than the public debt are estimated to amount 
during the year to about sixteen millions and a half, while 
a still larger sum, viz, $18,000,000, will have been applied 
to the principal and interest of the public debt. 

It is expected, however, that in consequence of the re- 
duced rates of duty which will take effect after the 3d of 
March next there will be a considerable falling off in the 
revenue from customs in the year 1833. It will nevertheless 
be amply sufficient to provide for all the wants of the public 
service, estimated even upon a liberal scale, and for the re- 
demption and purchase of the remainder of the public debt. 
On the I St of January next the entire public debt of the 
United States, funded and unfunded, will be reduced to 
within a fraction of $7,000,000, of which $2,227,363 are 
not of right redeemable until the ist of January, 1834, and 
$4,735,296 not until the 2d of January, 1835. The com- 
missioners of the sinking funds, however, being invested 
with full authority to purchase the debt at the market price, 
and the means of the Treasury being ample, it may be 
hoped that the whole will be extinguished within the year 

1833- 

I can not too cordially congratulate Congress and my 
fellow-citizens on the near approach of that memorable and 
happy event — the extinction of the public debt of this great 
and free nation. Faithful to the wise and patriotic policy 
marked out by the legislation of the country for this object, 
the present Administration has devoted to it all the means 
which a flourishing commerce has supplied and a prudent 
economy preserved for the public Treasury. Within the 
four years for which the people have confided the Executive 
power to my charge $58,000,000 will have been applied to 



1 86 Andrew Jackson 

the payment of the public debt. That this has been ac- 
compHshed without stinting the expenditures for all other 
proper objects will be seen by referring to the liberal pro- 
vision made during the same period for the support and in- 
crease of our means of maritime and military defense, for 
internal improvements of a national character, for the re- 
moval and preservation of the Indians, and, lastly, for the 
gallant veterans of the Revolution. 

The final removal of this great burthen from our re- 
sources affords the means of further provision for all the 
objects of general welfare and public defense which the 
Constitution authorizes, and presents the occasion for such 
further reduction in the revenue as may not be required for 
them. From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury it 
will be seen that after the present year such a reduction may 
be made to a considerable extent, and the subject is earnestly 
recommended to the consideration of Congress in the hope 
that the combined wisdom of the representatives of the peo- 
ple will devise such means of effecting that salutary object 
as may remove those burthens which shall be found to fall 
unequally upon any and as may promote all the great in- 
terests of the community. 

Long and patient reflection has strengthened the opin- 
ions I have heretofore expressed to Congress on this sub- 
ject, and I deem it my duty on the present occasion again to 
urge them upon the attention of the Legislature. The 
soundest maxims of public policy and the principles upon 
which our republican institutions are founded recommend a 
proper adaptation of the revenue to the expenditure, and 
they also require that the expenditure shall be limited to 
what, by an economical administration, shall be consistent 
with the simplicity of the Government and necessary to an 
efficient public service. In effecting this adjustment it is 
due, in justice to the interests of the different States, and 
even to the preservation of the Union itself, that the protec- 
tion afforded by existing laws to any branches of the na- 
tional industry should not exceed what may be necessary to 
counteract the regulations of foreign nations and to secure 



Fourth Annual Message 187 

a supply of those articles of manufacture essential to the 
national independence and safety in time of war. If upon 
investigation it shall be found, as it is believed it will be, 
that the legislative protection granted to any particular in- 
terest is greater than is indispensably requisite for these ob- 
jects, I recommend that it be gradually diminished, and that 
as far as may be consistent with these objects the whole 
scheme of duties be reduced to the revenue standard as soon 
as a just regard to the faith of the Government and to the 
preservation of the large capital invested in establishments 
of domestic industry will permit. 

That manufactures adequate to the supply of our do- 
mestic consumption would in the abstract be beneficial to 
our country there is no reason to doubt, and to effect their 
establishment there is perhaps no American citizen who 
would not for awhile be willing to pay a higher price for 
them. But for this purpose it is presumed that a tariff of 
high duties, designed for perpetual protection, has entered 
into the minds of but few of our statesmen. The most they 
have anticipated is a temporary and, generally, incidental 
protection, which they maintain has the effect to reduce the 
price by domestic competition below that of the foreign 
article. Experience, however, our best guide on this as on 
other subjects, makes it doubtful whether the advantages of 
this system are not counterbalanced by many evils, and 
whether it does not tend to beget in the minds of a large 
portion of our countrymen a spirit of discontent and jeal- 
ousy dangerous to the stability of the Union. 

What, then, shall be done? Large interests have grown 
up under the implied pledge of our national legislation, 
which it would seem a violation of public faith suddenly to 
abandon. Nothing could justify it but the public safety, 
which is the supreme law. But those who have vested their 
capital in manufacturing establishments can not expect that 
the people will continue permanently to pay high taxes for 
their benefit, when the money is not required for any legiti- 
mate purpose in the administration of the Government. Is 
it not enough that the high duties have been paid as long as 



1 88 Andrew Jackson 

the money arising from them could be appHed to the com- 
mon benefit in the extinguishment of the pubhc debt ? 

Those who take an enlarged view of the condition of our 
country must be satisfied that the policy of protection must 
be ultimately limited to those articles of domestic manu- 
facture which are indispensable to our safety in time of war. 
Within this scope, on a reasonable scale, it is recommended 
by every consideration of patriotism and duty, which will 
doubtless always secure to it a liberal and efficient support. 
But beyond this object we have already seen the operation 
of the system productive of discontent. In some sections 
of the Republic its influence is deprecated as tending to 
concentrate wealth into a few hands, and as creating those 
germs of dependence and vice which in other countries have 
characterized the existence of monopolies and proved so 
destructive of liberty and the general good. A large por- 
tion of the people in one section of the Republic declares it 
not only inexpedient on these grounds, but as disturbing the 
equal relations of property by legislation, and therefore un- 
constitutional and unjust. 

Doubtless these effects are in a great degree exaggerated, 
and may be ascribed to a mistaken view of the considera- 
tions which led to the adoption of the tariff system ; but 
they are nevertheless important in enabling us to review the 
subject with a more thorough knowledge of all its bearings 
upon the great interests of the Republic, and with a de- 
termination to dispose of it so that none can with justice 
complain. 

It is my painful duty to state that in one quarter of the 
United States opposition to the revenue laws has arisen to 
a height which threatens to thwart their execution, if not 
to endanger the integrity of the Union, Whatever obstruc- 
tions may be thrown in the way of the judicial authorities 
of the General Government, it is hoped they will be able 
peaceably to overcome them by the prudence of their own 
officers and the patriotism of the people. But should this 
reasonable reliance on the moderation and good sense of all 
portions of our fellow-citizens be disappointed, it is belie\ied 



"I 



Fourth Annual Message 189 

that the laws themselves are fully adequate to the suppres- 
sion of such attempts as may be immediately made. Should 
the exigency arise rendering the execution of the existing 
laws impracticable from any cause whatever, prompt notice 
of it will be given to Congress, with a suggestion of such 
views and measures as may be deemed necessary to meet it. 

In conformity with principles heretofore explained, and 
with the hope of reducing the General Government to that 
simple machine which the Constitution created and of with- 
drawing from the States all other influence than that of its 
universal beneficence in preserving peace, affording an uni- 
form currency, maintaining the inviolability of contracts, 
diffusing intelligence, and discharging unfelt its other sup- 
erintending functions, I recommend that provision be made 
to dispose of all stocks now held by it in corporations, 
whether created by the General or State Governments, and 
placing the proceeds in the Treasury. As a source of profit 
these stocks are of little or no value ; as a means of influence 
among the States they are adverse to the purity of our in- 
stitutions. The whole principle on which they are based is 
deemed by many unconstitutional, and persist in the policy 
which they indicate is considered wholly inexpedient. 

It is my duty to acquaint you with an arrangement made 
by the Bank of the United States with a portion of the 
holders of the 3 per cent stock, by which the Government 
will be deprived of the use of the public funds longer than 
was anticipated. By this arrangement, which will be particu- 
larly explained by the Secretary of the Treasury, a surren- 
der of the certificates of this stock may be postponed until 
October, 1833, and thus the liability of the Government, 
after its ability to discharge the debt, may be continued by 
the failure of the bank to perform its duties. 

Such measures as are within the reach of the Secretary 
of the Treasury have been taken to enable him to judge 
whether the public deposits in that institution may be re- 
garded as entirely safe ; but as his limited power may prove 
inadequate to this object, I recommend the subject to the 
attention of Congress, under the firm belief that it is worthy 



190 Andrew Jackson 

of their serious investigation. An inquiry into the transac- 
tions of the institution, embracing the branches as well as 
the principal bank, seems called for by the credit which is 
given throughout the country to many serious charges im- 
peaching its character, and which if true may justly excite 
the apprehension that it is no longer a safe depository of the 
money of the people. 

Among the interests which merit the consideration of 
Congress after the payment of the public debt, one of the 
most important, in my view, is that of the public lands. 
Previous to the formation of our present Constitution it 
was recommended by Congress that a portion of the waste 
lands owned by the States should be ceded to the United 
States for the purposes of general harmony and as a fund 
to meet the expenses of the war. The recommendation was 
adopted, and at different periods of time the States of 
Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, North and South Car- 
olina, and Georgia granted their vacant soil for the uses for 
which they had been asked. As the lands may now be con- 
sidered as relieved from this pledge, the object for which 
they were ceded having been accomplished, it is in the dis- 
cretion of Congress to dispose of them in such way as best 
to conduce to the quiet, harmony, and general interest of 
the American people. In examining this question all local 
and sectional feelings should be discarded and the whole 
United States regarded as one people, interested alike in 
the prosperity of their common country. 

It can not be doubted that the speedy settlement of these 
lands constitutes the true interest of the Republic. The 
wealth and strength of a country are its population, and the 
best part of that population are the cultivators of the soil. 
Independent farmers are everywhere the basis of society 
and true friends of liberty. 

In addition to these considerations questions have already 
arisen, and may be expected hereafter to grow out of the 
public lands, which involve the rights of the new States and 
the powers of the General Government, and unless a liberal 
policy be now adopted there is danger that these questions 



Fourth Annual Message 191 

may speedily assume an importance not now generally an- 
ticipated. The influence of a great sectional interest, when 
brought into full action, will be found more dangerous to 
the harmony and union of the States than any other cause 
of discontent, and it is the part of wisdom and sound policy 
to foresee its approaches and endeavor if possible to coun- 
teract them. 

Of the various schemes which have been hitherto pro- 
posed in regard to the disposal of the public lands, none has 
yet received the entire approbation of the National Legis- 
lature. Deeply impressed with the importance of a speedy 
and satisfactory arrangement of the subject, I deem it my 
duty on this occasion to urge it upon your consideration, 
and to the propositions which have been heretofore sug- 
gested by others to contribute those reflections which have 
occurred to me, in the hope that they may assist you in your 
future deliberations. 

It seems to me to be our true policy that the public lands 
shall cease as soon as practicable to be a source of revenue, 
and that they be sold to settlers in limited parcels at a price 
barely sufficient to reimburse to the United States the ex- 
pense of the present system and the cost arising under our 
Indian compacts. The advantages of accurate surveys and 
undoubted titles now secured to purchasers seem to forbid 
the abolition of the present system, because none can be sub- 
stituted which will more perfectly accomplish these impor- 
tant ends. It is desirable, however, that in convenient time 
this machinery be withdrawn from the States, and that the 
right of soil and the future disposition of it be surrendered 
to the States respectively in which it lies. 

The adventurous and hardy population of the West, be- 
sides contributing their equal share of taxation under our 
impost system, have in the progress of our Government, 
for the lands they occupy, paid into the Treasury a large 
proportion of $40,000,000, and of the revenue received 
therefrom but a small part has been expended amongst 
them. When to the disadvantage of their situation in this 
respect we add the consideration that it is their labor alone 



192 Andrew Jackson 

which gives real value to the lands, and that the proceeds 
arising from their sale are distributed chiefly among States 
which had not originally any claim to them, and which have 
enjoyed the undivided emolument arising from the sale 
of their own lands, it can not be expected that the new 
States will remain longer contented with the present policy 
after the payment of the public debt. To avert the conse- 
quences which may be apprehended from this cause, to put 
an end forever to all partial and interested legislation on 
the subject, and to afford to every American citizen of 
enterprise the opportunity of securing an independent free- 
hold, it seems to me, therefore, best to abandon the idea 
of raising a future revenue out of the public lands. 

In former messages I have expressed my conviction that 
the Constitution does not warrant the application of the 
funds of the General Government to objects of internal im- 
provement which are not national in their character, and, 
both as a means of doing justice to all interests and putting 
an end to a course of legislation calculated to destroy 
the purity of the Government, have urged the necessity 
of reducing the whole subject to some fixed and certain 
rule. As there never will occur a period, perhaps, more 
propitious than the present to the accomplishment of this 
object, I beg leave to press the subject again upon your 
attention. 

Without some general and well-defined principles ascer- 
taining those objects of internal improvement to which the 
means of the nation may be constitutionally applied, it is 
obvious that the exercise of the power can never be satis- 
factory. Besides the danger to which it exposes Congress 
of making hasty appropriations to works of the character 
of which they may be frequently ignorant, it promotes a 
mischievous and corrupting influence upon elections by hold- 
ing out to the people the fallacious hope that the success of 
a certain candidate will make navigable their neighboring 
creek or river, bring commerce to their doors, and increase 
the value of their propert}*. . It thus favors combinations to 
squander the treasure of the country upon a multitude of 



Fourth Annual Message i93 

local objects, as fatal to just legislation as to the purity of 
public men. 

If a system compatible with the Constitution can not be 
devised which is free from such tendencies, we should rec- 
ollect that that instrument provides within itself the mode 
of its amendment, and that there is, therefore, no excuse for 
the assumption of doubtful powers by the General Govern- 
ment. If those which are clearly granted shall be found 
incompetent to the ends of its creation, it can at any time 
apply for their enlargement ; and there is no probability that 
such an application, if founded on the public interest, will 
ever be refused. If the propriety of the proposed grant be 
not sufficiently apparent to command the assent of three- 
fourths of the States, the best possible reason why the power 
should not be assumed on doubtful authority is afforded; 
for if more than one-fourth of the States are unwilling to 
make the grant its exercise will be productive of discon- 
tents which will far overbalance any advantages that could 
be derived from it. All must admit that there is nothing 
so worthy of the constant solicitude of this Government as 
the harmony and union of the people. 

Being solemnly impressed with the conviction that the ex- 
tension of the power to make internal improvements beyond 
the limit I have suggested, even if it be deemed constitu- 
tional, is subversive of the best interests of our country, I 
earnestly recommend to Congress to refrain from its exer- 
cise in doubtful cases, except in relation to improvements 
already begun, unless they shall first procure from the 
States such an amendment of the Constitution as will define 
its character and prescribe its bounds. If the States feel 
themselves competent to these objects, why should this Gov- 
ernment wish to assume the power? If they do not, then 
they will not hesitate to make the grant. Both Governments 
are the Governments of the people; improvements must be 
made with the money of the people, and if the money can 
be collected and applied by those more simple and economi- 
cal political machines, the State governments, it will un- 
questionably be safer and better for the people than to add 



194 Andrew Jackson 

to the splendor, the patronage, and the power of the Gen- 
eral Government. But if the people of the several States 
think otherwise they will amend the Constitution, and in 
their decision all ought cheerfully to acquiesce. 

For a detailed and highly satisfactory view of the opera- 
tions of the War Department I refer you to the accompany- 
ing report of the Secretary of War. 

The hostile incursions of the Sac and Fox Indians neces- 
sarily led to the interposition of the Government. A por- 
tion of the troops, under Generals Scott and Atkinson, and 
of the militia of the State of Illinois were called into the 
field. After a harassing warfare, prolonged by the nature 
of the country and by the difficulty of procuring subsistence, 
the Indians were entirely defeated, and the disaffected band 
dispersed or destroyed. The result has been creditable to 
the troops engaged in the service. Severe as is the lesson 
to the Indians, it was rendered necessary by their unpro- 
voked aggressions, and it is to be hoped that its impression 
will be permanent and salutary. 

This campaign has evinced the efficient organization of 
the Army and its capacity for prompt and active service. 
Its several departments have performed their functions with 
energy and dispatch, and the general movement was satis- 
factory. 

Our fellow-citizens upon the frontiers were ready, as they 
always are, in the tender of their services in the hour of dan- 
ger. But a more efficient organization of our militia sys- 
tem is essential to that security which is one of the principal 
objects of all governments. Neither our situation nor our 
institutions require or permit the maintenance of a large reg- 
ular force. History offers too many lessons of the fatal re- 
sult of such a measure not to warn us against its adoption 
here. The expense which attends it, the obvious tendency 
to employ it because it exists and thus to engage in un- 
necessary wars, and its ultimate danger to public liberty 
will lead us, I trust, to place our principal dependence for 
protection upon the great body of the citizens of the Re- 
public. If in asserting rights or in repelling wrongs war 



Fourth Annual Message i95 

should come upon us, our regular force should be increased 
to an extent proportioned to the emergency, and our pres- 
ent small Army is a nucleus around which such force could 
be formed and embodied. But for the purposes of defense 
under ordinary circumstances we must rely upon the elec- 
tors of the country. Those by whom and for whom the 
Government was instituted and is supported will constitute 
its protection in the hour of danger as they do its check in 
the hour of safety. 

But it is obvious that the militia system is imperfect. 
Much time is lost, much unnecessary expense incurred, and 
much public property wasted under the present arrange- 
ment. Little useful knowledge is gained by the musters 
and drills as now established, and the whole subject evi- 
dently requires a thorough examination. Whether a plan 
of classification remedying these defects and providing for 
a system of instruction might not be adopted is submitted to 
the consideration of Congress. The Constitution has 
vested in the General Government an independent authority 
upon the subject of the militia which renders its action es- 
sential to the establishment or improvement of the systemy 
and I recommend the matter to your consideration in the 
conviction that the state of this important arm of the public 
defense requires your attention. 

I am happy to inform you that the wise and humane pol- 
icy of transferring from the eastern to the western side of 
the Mississippi the remnants of our aboriginal tribes, with 
their own consent and upon just terms, has been steadily 
pursued, and is approaching, I trust, its consummation. By 
reference to the report of the Secretary of War and to the 
documents submitted with it you will see the progress which 
has been made since your last session in the arrangement of 
the various matters connected with our Indian relations. 
With one exception every subject involving any question of 
conflicting jurisdiction or of peculiar difficulty has been 
happily disposed of, and the conviction evidently gains 
ground among the Indians that their removal to the 
country assigned by the United States for their per- 



19^ Andrew Jackson 

manent residence furnishes the only hope of their ultimate 
prosperity. 

With that portion of the Cherokees, however, living 
within the State of Georgia it has been found impracticable 
as yet to make a satisfactory adjustment. Such was my 
anxiety to remove all the grounds of complaint and to bring 
to a termination the difficulties in which they are involved 
that I directed the very liberal propositions to be made to 
them which accompany the documents herewith submitted. 
They can not but have seen in these offers the evidence of 
the strongest disposition on the part of the Government to 
deal justly and liberally with them. An ample indemnity 
was offered for their present possessions, a liberal provision 
for their future support and improvement, and full security 
for their private and political rights. Whatever difference 
of opinion may have prevailed respecting the just claims of 
these people, there will probably be none respecting the lib- 
erality of the propositions, and very little respecting the ex- 
pediency of their immediate acceptance. They were, how- 
ever, rejected, and thus the position of these Indians 
remains unchanged, as do the views communicated in my 
message to the Senate of February 22, 1831. 

I refer you to the annual report of the Secretary of the 
Navy, which accompanies this message, for a detail of the 
operations of that branch of the service during the present 
year. 

Besides the general remarks on some of the transactions 
of our Navy presented in the view which has been taken of 
our foreign relations, I seize this occasion to invite to your 
notice the increased protection which it has afforded to our 
commerce and citizens on distant seas without any aug- 
mentation of the force in commission. In the gradual im- 
provement of its pecuniary concerns, in the constant prog- 
ress in the collection of materials suitable for use during 
future emergencies, and in the construction of vessels and 
the buildings necessary to their preservation and repair, the 
present state of this branch of the service exhibits the fruits 
of that vigilance and care which are so indispensable to its 



Fourth Annual Message 197 

efficiency. Various new suggestions, contained in the an- 
nexed report, as well as others heretofore submitted to Con- 
gress, are worthy of your attention, but none more so than 
that urging the renewal for another term of six years of the 
general appropriation for the gradual improvement of the 
Navy, 

From the accompanying report of the Postmaster-Gen- 
eral you will also perceive that that Department continues 
to extend its usefulness without impairing its resources or 
lessening the accommodations which it affords in the se- 
cure and rapid transportation of the mail. 

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the views 
heretofore expressed in relation to the mode of choosing the 
President and Vice-President of the United States, and to 
those respecting the tenure of office generally. Still im- 
pressed with the justness of those views and with the belief 
that the modifications suggested on those subjects if adopted 
will contribute to the prosperity and harmony of the coun- 
try, I earnestly recommend them to your consideration at 
this time. 

I have heretofore pointed out defects in the law for pun- 
ishing official frauds, especially within the District of Co- 
lumbia. It has been found almost impossible to bring no- 
torious culprits to punishment, and, according to a decision 
of the court for this District, a prosecution is barred by a 
lapse of two years after the fraud has been committed. It 
may happen again, as it has already happened, that during 
the whole two years all the evidences of the fraud may be in 
the possession of the culprit himself. However proper the 
limitation may be in relation to private citizens, it would 
seem that it ought not to commence running in favor of 
public officers until they go out of office. 

The judiciary system of the United States remains im- 
perfect. Of the nine Western and Southwestern States 
three only enjoy the benefits of a circuit court. Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee are embraced in the general system, 
but Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and 
Louisiana have only district courts. If the existing system 



198 Andrew Jackson 

be a good one, why should it not be extended? If it be a 
bad one, why is it suffered to exist ? The new States were 
promised equal rights and privileges when they came into 
the Union, and such are the guaranties of the Constitution. 
Nothing* can be more obvious than the obligation of the 
General Government to place all the States on the same 
footing in relation to the administration of justice, and I 
trust this duty will be neglected no longer. 

On many of the subjects to which your attention is in- 
vited in this communication it is a source of gratification 
to reflect that the steps to be now adopted are uninfluenced 
by the embarrassments entailed upon the country by the 
wars through which it has passed. In regard to most of 
our great interests we may consider ourselves as just start- 
ing in our career, and after a salutary experience about to 
fix upon a permanent basis the policy best calculated to pro- 
mote the happiness of the people and facilitate their prog- 
ress toward the most complete enjoyment of civil liberty. 
On an occasion so interesting and important in our history, 
and of such anxious concern to the friends of freedom 
throughout the world, it is our imperious duty to lay aside 
all selfish and local considerations and be guided by a lofty 
spirit of devotion to the great principles on which our insti- 
tutions are founded. 

r That this Government may be so administered as to pre- 
serve its efficiency in promoting and securing these general 
objects should be the only aim of our ambition, and we can 
not, therefore, too carefully examine its structure, in order 
that we may not mistake its powers or assume those which 
the people have reserved to themselves or have preferred 
to assign to other agents. We should bear constantly in 
mind the fact that the considerations which induced the 
framers of the Constitution to withhold from the General 
Government the power to regulate the great mass of the 
business and concerns of the people have been fully justified 
by experience, and that it can not now be doubted that the 
genius of all our institutions prescribes simplicity and econ- 
omy as the characteristics of the reform which is yet to be 



Fourth Annual Message 199 

effected in the present and future execution of the functions 
bestowed upon us by the Constitution. 

Limited to a general superintending power to maintain 
peace at home and abroad, and to prescribe laws on a few 
subjects of general interest not calculated to restrict human 
liberty, but to enforce human rights, this Government will 
find its strength and its glory in the faithful discharge of 
these plain and simple duties. Relieved by its protecting 
shield from the fear of war and the apprehension of oppres- 
sion, the free enterprise of our citizens, aided by the State 
sovereignties," will work out improvements and ameliora- 
tions which can not fail to demonstrate that the great truth 
that the people can govern themselves is not only realized in 
our example, but that it is done by a machinery in govern- 
ment so simple and economical as scarcely to be felt.^jThat 
the Almighty Ruler of the Universe may so direct our de- 
liberations and overrule our acts as to make us instrumen- 
tal in securing a result so dear to mankind is my most ear- 
nest and sincere prayer. 



Message on the South Carolina Ordinance 

and Proclamation of Governor 

Hamilton.* 

(January i6, 1833.) 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives : 

In my annual message at the commencement of your 
present session I adverted to the opposition to the revenue 
laws in a particular quarter of the United States, which 
threatened not merely to thwart their execution, but to en- 
danger the integrity of the Union; and although I then 
expressed my reliance that it might be overcome by the 
prudence of the officers of the United States and the patri- 
otism of the people, I stated that should the emergency 
arise rendering the execution of the existing laws impracti- 
cable from any cause whatever prompt notice should be 
given to Congress, with the suggestion of such views and 
measures as might be necessary to meet it. 

Events which have occurred in the quarter then alluded 
to, or which have come to my knowledge subsequently, pre- 
sent this emergency. 

Since the date of my last annual message I have had offi- 

* This message developed more in detail the ideas on the general 
subject expressed in the President's annual message, December 4, 
1832. "He knew," remarks Benton, "that there was a deep feeling 
of discontent in the South, founded in a conviction that the Federal 
Government was working disadvantageoH.isly to that part of the 
Union in the vital points of the levy, and the expenditure of the Fed- 
eral revenue; and that it was upon this feeling that politicians operated 
to produce disaffection to the Union." Thirty Years' View, I., p. 308. 

This message should be read in connection with the letters given in 
the early part of this volume; the Ordinance of Nullification passed by 
the South Carolina legislature, November 24, 1832, reprinted by 
Benton (Id., pp. 297-298), and the Proclamation of the President of 
December 10, 1832; also, with the general history of the times. (See 
Bibliography.) 



Proclamation 201 

cially transmitted to me by the governor of South CaroUna, 
which I now communicate to Congress, a copy of the ordi- 
nance passed by the convention which assembled at Colum- 
bia, in the State of South Carolina, in November last, de- 
claring certain acts of Congress therein mentioned within 
the limits of that State to be absolutely null and void, and 
making it the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as 
would be necessary to carry the same into effect from and 
after the ist February next. 

The consequences to which this extraordinary defiance of 
the just authority of the Government might too surely lead 
were clearly foreseen, and it was impossible for me to hesi- 
tate as to my own duty in such an emergency. 

The ordinance had been passed, however, without any 
certain knowledge of the recommendation which, from a 
view of the interests of the nation at large, the Executive 
had determined to submit to Congress, and a hope was in- 
dulged that by frankly explaining his sentiments and the 
nature of those duties which the crisis would devolve upon 
him the authorities of South Carolina might be induced to 
retrace their steps. In this hope I determined to issue my 
proclamation of the loth of December last, a copy of which 
I now lay before Congress. 

I regret to inform you that these reasonable expectations 
have not been realized, and that the several acts of the leg- 
islature of South Carolina which I now lay before you, and 
which have all and each of them finally passed after a 
knowledge of the desire of the Administration to modify 
the laws complained of, are too well calculated both in their 
positive enactments and in the spirit of opposition which 
they obviously encourage wholly to obstruct the collection 
of the revenue within the limits of that State. 

Up to this period neither the recommendation of the 
Executive in regard to our financial policy and impost sys- 
tem, nor the disposition manifested by Congress promptly 
to act upon that subject, nor the unequivocal expression of 
the public will in all parts of the Union appears to have pro- 
duced any relaxation in the measures of opposition adopted 



202 Andrew Jackson 

by the State of South Carolina; nor is there any reason to 
hope that the ordinance and laws will be abandoned. 

I have no knowledge that an attempt has been made, or 
that it is in contemplation, to reassemble either the con- 
vention or the legislature, and it will be perceived that the 
interval before the ist of February is too short to admit of 
the preliminary steps necessary for that purpose. It ap- 
pears, moreover, that the State authorities are actively or- 
ganizing their military resources, and providing the means 
and giving the most solemn assurances of protection and 
support to all who shall enlist in opposition to the revenue 
laws. 

A recent proclamation of the present governor of South 
Carolina has openly defied the authority of the Executive 
of the Union, and general orders from the headquarters of 
the State announced his determination to accept the services 
of volunteers and his belief that should their country need 
their services they will be found at the post of honor and 
duty, ready to lay down their lives in her defense. Under 
these orders the forces referred to are directed to " hold 
themselves in readiness to take the field at a moment's warn- 
ing," and in the city of Charleston, within a collection dis- 
trict, and a port of entry, a rendezvous has been opened for 
the purpose of enlisting men for the magazine and muni- 
cipal guard. Thus South Carolina presents herself in the 
attitude of hostile preparation, and ready even for military 
violence if need be to enforce her laws for preventing the 
collection of the duties within her limits. 

Proceedings thus announced and matured must be dis- 
tinguished from menaces of unlawful resistance by irreg- 
ular bodies of people, who, acting under temporary delu- 
sion, may be restrained by reflection and the influence of 
public opinion from the commission of actual outrage. In 
the present instance aggression may be regarded as com- 
mitted when it is officially authorized and the means of en- 
forcing it fully provided. 

Under these circumstances there can be no doubt that it 
is the determination of the authorities of South Carolina 



Proclamation 203 

fully to carry into effect their ordinance and laws after the 
1st of February. It therefore becomes my duty to bring 
the subject to the serious consideration of Congress, in or- 
der that such measures as they in their wisdom may deem 
fit shall be seasonably provided, and that it may be thereby 
understood that while the Government is disposed to re- 
move all just cause of complaint as far as may be practicable 
consistently with a proper regard to the interests of the 
community at large, it is nevertheless determined that the 
supremacy of the laws shall be maintained. 

In making this communication it appears to me to be 
proper not only that I should lay before you the acts and 
proceedings of South Carolina, but that I should also fully 
acquaint you with those steps which I have already caused 
to be taken for the due collection of the revenue, and with 
my views of the subject generally, that the suggestions 
which the Constitution requires me to make in regard to 
your future legislation may be better understood. 

This subject having early attracted the anxious atten- 
tion of the Executive, as soon as it was probable that the 
authorities of South Carolina seriously meditated resistance 
to the faithful execution of the revenue laws it was deemed 
advisable that the Secretary of the Treasury should particu- 
larly instruct the officers of the United States in that part 
of the Union as to the nature of the duties prescribed by 
the existing laws. 

Instructions were accordingly issued on the 6th of No- 
vember to the collectors in that State, pointing out their 
respective duties and enjoining upon each a firm and vigi- 
lant but discreet performance of them in the emergency then 
apprehended. 

I herewith transmit copies of these instructions and of 
the letter addressed to the district attorney, requesting his 
cooperation. These instructions were dictated in the hope 
that as the opposition to the laws by the anomalous proceed- 
ing of nullification was represented to be of a pacific nature, 
to be pursued substantially according to the forms of the 
Constitution and without resorting in any event to force 



204 Andrew Jackson 

or violence, the measures of its advocates v^ould be taken 
in conformity with that profession, and on such supposition 
the means afforded by the existing laws would have been 
adequate to meet any emergency likely to arise. 

It was, however, not possible altogether to suppress ap- 
prehension of the excesses to which the excitement pre- 
vailing in that quarter might lead, but it certainly was not 
foreseen that the meditated obstruction to the laws would 
so soon openly assume its present character. 

Subsequently to the date of those instructions, however, 
the ordinance of the convention was passed, which, if com- 
plied with by the people of the State, must effectually ren- 
der inoperative the present revenue laws within her limits. 

That ordinance declares and ordains — 

That the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of 
the United States purporting to be laws for the imposing 
of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign com- 
modities, and now having operation and effect within the 
United States, and more especially " An act in alteration of 
the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on 
the 19th of May, 1828, and also an act entitled " An act to 
alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on im- 
ports," approved on the 14th July, 1832, are unauthorized 
by the Constitution of the United States, and violate the 
true intent and meaning thereof, and are null and void and 
no law, nor binding upon the State of South Carolina, its 
officers and citizens; and all promises, contracts, and obli- 
gations made or entered into, or to be made or entered into, 
with purpose to secure the duties imposed by the said acts, 
and all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in 
affirmance thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and 
void. 

It also ordains — 

That it shall not be lawful for any of the constituted au- 
thorities, whether of the State of South Carolina or of the 
United States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by 
the said acts within the limits of the State, but that it shall 



Proclamation 205 

be the duty of the legislature to adopt such measures and 
pass such acts as may be necessary to give full effect to this 
ordinance and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the 
operation of the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress 
of the United States within the limits of the State from 
and after the ist of February next; and it shall be the duty 
of all other constituted authorities and of all other persons 
residing or being within the limits of the State, and they 
are hereby required and enjoined, to obey and give effect 
to this ordinance and such acts and measures of the legis- 
lature as may be passed or adopted in obedience thereto. 

It further ordains — 

That in no case of law or equity decided in the courts of 
the State wherein shall be drawn in question the authority 
of this ordinance, or the validity of such act or acts of the 
legislature as may be passed for the purpose of giving ef- 
fect thereto, or the validity of the aforesaid acts of Con- 
gress imposing duties, shall any appeal be taken or allowed 
to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any 
copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that pur- 
pose; and the person or persons attempting to take such 
appeal may be dealt with as for a contempt of court. 

It likewise ordains — 

That all persons holding any office of honor, profit, or 
trust, civil or military, under the State shall, within such 
time and in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe, 
take an oath well and truly to obey, execute, and enforce 
this ordinance and such act or acts of the legislature as may 
be passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent 
and meaning of the same; and on the neglect or omission 
of any such person or persons so to do his or their office or 
offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up as 
if such person or persons were dead or had resigned. And 
no person hereafter elected to any office of honor, profit, or 
trust, civil or military, shall, until the legislature shall other- 
wise provide and direct, enter on the execution of his office 
or be in any respect competent to discharge the duties there- 



2o6 Andrew Jackson 

of until he shall in like manner have taken a similar oath ; 
and no juror shall be empaneled in any of the courts of the 
State in any cause in which shall be in question this ordi- 
nance or any act of the legislature passed in pursuance 
thereof, unless he shall first, in addition to the usual oath, 
have taken an oath that he will well and truly obey, exe- 
cute, and enforce this ordinance and such act or acts of the 
legislature as may be passed to carry the same into opera- 
tion and effect, according to the true intent and meaning 
thereof. 

The ordinance concludes: 

And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it 
may be fully understood by the Government of the United 
States and the people of the co-States that we are deter- 
mined to maintain this ordinance and declaration at every 
hazard, do further declare that we will not submit to the 
application of force on the part of the Federal Government 
to reduce this State to obedience, but that we will consider 
the passage by Congress of any act authorizing the employ- 
ment of a military or naval force against the State of South 
Carolina, her constituted authorities or citizens, or any act 
abolishing or closing the ports of this State, or any of them, 
or otherwise obstructing the free ingress and egress of ves- 
sels to and from the said ports, or any other act on the part 
of the Federal Government to coerce the State, shut up her 
ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the 
acts hereby declared to be null and void, otherwise than 
through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent 
with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union ; 
and that the people of this State will thenceforth hold them- 
selves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or 
preserve their political connection with the people of the 
other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a sep- 
arate government and to do all other acts and things which 
sovereign and independent states may of right do. 

This solemn denunciation of the laws and authority of 
the United States has been followed up by a series of acts 
on the part of the authorities of that State which manifest a 



Proclamation 207 

determination to render inevitable a resort to those meas- 
ures of self-defense which the paramount duty of the Fed- 
eral Government requires, but upon the adoption of which 
that State will proceed to execute the purpose it has avowed 
in this ordinance of withdrawing from the Union. 

On the 27th of November the legislature assembled at 
Columbia, and on their meeting the governor laid before 
them the ordinance of the convention. In his message on 
that occasion he acquaints them that " this ordinance has 
thus become a part of the fundamental law of South Caro- 
lina ;" that " the die has been at last cast, and South Caro- 
lina has at length appealed to her ulterior sovereignty as a 
member of this Confederacy and has planted herself on her 
reserved rights. The rightful exercise of this power is not 
a question which we shall any longer argue. It is sufficient 
that she has willed it, and that the act is done; nor is its 
strict compatibility with our constitutional obligation to all 
laws passed by the General Government within the author- 
ized grants of power to be drawn in question when this 
interposition is exerted in a case in which the compact has 
been palpably, deliberately, and dangerously violated. That 
it brings up a conjuncture of deep and momentous interest 
is neither to be concealed nor denied. This crisis presents 
a class of duties which is referable to yourselves. You have 
been commanded by the people in their highest sovereignty 
to take care that within the limits of this State their will 
shall be obeyed." " The measure of legislation," he says, 
" which you have to employ at this crisis is the precise 
amount of such enactments as may be necessary to render it 
utterly impossible to collect within our limits the duties im- 
posed, by the protective tariffs thus nullified." 
He proceeds : 

That you should arm every citizen with a civil process by 
which he may claim, if he pleases, a restitution of his goods , 
seized under the existing imposts on his giving security to 
abide the issue of a suit at law, and at the same time define 
what shall constitute treason against the State, and by a bill 



2o8 Andrew Jackson 

of pains and penalties compel obedience and punish dis- 
obedience to your own laws, are points too obvious to re- 
quire any discussion. In one word, you must survey the 
whole ground. You must look to and provide for all pos- 
sible contingencies. In your own limits your own courts 
of judicature must not only be supreme, but you must look 
to the ultimate issue of any conflict of jurisdiction and 
power between them and the courts of the United States. 

The governor also asks for power to grant clearances, in 
violation of the laws of the Union; and to prepare for the 
alternative which must happen unless the United States shall 
passively surrender their authority, and the Executive, dis- 
regarding his oath, refrain from executing the laws of the 
Union, he recommends a thorough revision of the militia 
system, and that the governor " be authorized to accept for 
the defense of Charleston and its dependencies the services 
of 2,000 volunteers, either by companies or files," and that 
they be formed into a legionary brigade consisting of in- 
fantry, riflemen, cavalry, field and heavy artillery, and that 
they be " armed and equipped from the public arsenals com- 
pletely for the field, and that appropriations be made for 
supplying all deficiencies in our munitions of war." In ad- 
dition to thes« volunteer drafts, he recommends that the 
governor be authorized " to accept the services of 10,000 
volunteers from the other divisions of the State, to be or- 
ganized and arranged in regiments and brigades, the offi- 
cers to be selected by the commander in chief, and that this 
whole force be called the State guard.'' 

A request has been regularly made of the secretary of 
state of South Carolina for authentic copies of the acts which 
have been passed for the purpose of enforcing the ordi- 
nance, but up to the date of the latest advices that request 
had not been complied with, and on the present occasion, 
therefore, reference can only be made to those acts as pub- 
lished in the newspapers of the State. 

The acts to which it is deemed proper to invite the par- 
ticular attention of Congress are : 



Proclamation 209 

First. " An act to carry into effect, in part, an ordinance 
to nullify certain acts of the Congress of the United States 
purporting to be laws laying duties on the importation of 
foreign commodities," passed in convention of this State, 
at Columbia, on the 24th November, 1832. 

This act provides that any goods seized or detained under 
pretense of securing the duties, or for the nonpayment of 
duties, or under any process, order, or decree, or other pre- 
text contrary to the intent and meaning of the ordinance 
may be recovered by the owner or consignee by " an act of 
replevin;" that in case of refusing to deliver them, or re- 
moving them so that the replevin can not be executed, the 
sheriff may seize the personal estate of the offender to 
I double the amount of the goods, and if any attempt shall be 

made to retake or seize them it is the duty of the sheriff to 
recapture them; and that any person who shall disobey the 
process or remove the goods, or anyone who shall attempt 
to retake or seize the goods under pretense of securing the 
duties, or for nonpayment of duties, or under any process 
or decree contrary to the intent of the ordinance, shall be 
fined and imprisoned, besides being liable for any other 
offense involved in the act. 

It also provides that any person arrested or imprisoned 
on any judgment or decree obtained in any Federal court 
for duties shall be entitled to the benefit secured by the 
habeas corpus act of the State in cases of unlawful arrest, 
and may maintain an action for damages, and that if any 
estate shall be sold under such judgment or decree the sale 
shall be held illegal. It also provides that any jailer who 
receives a person committed on any process or other judi- 
cial proceedings to enforce the payment of duties, and any- 
one who hires his house as a jail to receive such persons, 
shall be fined and imprisoned. And, finally, it provides that 
persons paying duties may recover them back with interest. 

The next is called " An act to provide for the security and 
protection of the people of the State of South Carolina." 

This act provides that if the Government of the United 
States or any officer thereof shall, by the employment of 



210 Andrew Jackson 

naval or military force, attempt to coerce the State of South 
CaroHna into submission to the acts of Congress declared 
by the ordinance null and void, or to resist the enforce- 
ment of the ordinance or of the laws passed in pursuance 
thereof, or in case of any armed or forcible resistance 
thereto, the governor is authorized to resist the same and 
to order into service the whole or so much of the military 
force of the State as he may deem necessary; and that in 
case of any overt act of coercion or intention to commit the 
same, manifested by an unusual assemblage of naval or mil- 
itary forces in or near the State, or the occurrence of any 
circumstances indicating that armed force is about to be 
employed against the State or in resistance to its laws, the 
governor is authorized to accept the services of such volun- 
teers and call into service such portions of the militia as may 
be required to meet the emergency. 

The act also provides for accepting the service of the 
volunteers and organizing the militia, embracing all free 
white males between the ages of i6 and 60, and for the 
purchase of arms, ordnance, and ammunition. It also de- 
clares that the power conferred on the governor shall be ap- 
plicable to all cases of insurrection or invasion, or imminent 
danger thereof, and to cases where the laws of the State 
shall be opposed and the execution thereof forcibly resisted 
by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the power 
vested in the sheriffs and other civil officers, and declares 
it to be the duty of the governor in every such case to call 
forth such portions of the militia and volunteers as may be 
necessary promptly to suppress such combinations and cause 
the laws of the State to be executed. 

No. 9 is " An act concerning the oath required by the 
ordinance passed in convention at Columbia on the 24th of 
November, 1832." 

This act prescribes the form of the oath, which is, to obey 
and execute the ordinance and all acts passed by the legis- 
lature in pursuance thereof, and directs the time and manner 
of taking it by the officers of the State — civil, judiciary, and 
military. 



Proclamation 2 1 1 

It is believed that other acts have been passed embracing 
provisions for enforcing the ordinance, but I have not yet 
been able to procure them. 

I transmit, however, a copy of Governor Hamilton's 
message to the legislature of South Carolina; of Governor 
Hayne's inaugural address to the same body, as also of his 
proclamation, and a general order of the governor and com- 
mander in chief, dated the 20th of December, giving public 
notice that the services of volunteers will be accepted under 
the act already referred to. 

If these measures can not be defeated and overcome by 
the power conferred by the Constitution on the Federal 
Government, the Constitution must be considered as incom- 
petent to its own defense, the supremacy of the laws is at 
an end, and the rights and liberties of the citizens can 
no longer receive protection from the Government of the 
Union. They not only abrogate the acts of Congress com- 
monly called the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832, but they 
prostrate and sweep away at once and without exception 
every act and every part of every act imposing any amount 
whatever of duty on any foreign merchandise, and virtually 
every existing act which has ever been passed authorizing 
the collection of the revenue, including the act of 1816, and 
also the collection law of 1799, the constitutionality of which 
has never been questioned. It is not only those duties which 
are charged to have been imposed for the protection of man- 
ufactures that are thereby repealed, but all others, though 
laid for the purpose of revenue merely, and upon articles in 
no degree suspected of being objects of protection. The 
whole revenue system of the United States in South Caro- 
lina is obstructed and overthrown, and the Government is 
absolutely prohibited from collecting any part of the public 
revenue within the limits of that State. Henceforth, not 
only the citizens of South Carolina and of the United States, 
but the subjects of foreign states may import any description 
or quantity of merchandise into the ports of South Carolina 
without the payment of any duty whatsoever. That State 
is thus relieved from the payment of any part of the public 



212 Andrew Jackson 

burthens, and duties and imposts are not only rendered not 
uniform throughout the United States, but a direct and 
ruinous preference is given to the ports of that State over 
those of all the other States of the Union, in manifest vio- 
lation of the positive provisions of the Constitution. 

In point of duration, also, those aggressions upon the 
authority of Congress which by the ordinance are made 
part of the fundamental law of South Carolina are abso- 
lute, indefinite, and without limitation. They neither pre- 
scribe the period when they shall cease nor indicate any 
conditions upon which those who have thus undertaken to 
arrest the operation of the laws are to retrace their steps and 
rescind their measures. They ofifer to the United States no 
alternative but unconditional submission. If the scope of 
the ordinance is to be received as the scale of concession, 
their demands can be satisfied only by a repeal of the whole 
system of revenue laws and by abstaining from the collec- 
tion of any duties and imposts whatsoever. 

It is true that in the address to the people of the United 
States by the convention of South Carolina, after announc- 
ing " the fixed and final determination of the State in rela- 
tion to the protecting system," they say " that it remains for 
us to submit a plan of taxation in which we would be willing 
to acquiesce in a liberal spirit of concession, provided we are 
met in due time and in a becoming spirit by the States in- 
terested in manufactures." In the opinion of the conven- 
tion, an equitable plan would be that " the whole list of pro- 
tected articles should be imported free of all duty, and that 
the revenue derived from import duties should be raised ex- 
clusively from the unprotected articles, or that whenever a 
duty is imposed upon protected articles imported an excise 
duty of the same rate shall be imposed upon all similar 
articles manufactured in the United States." 

The address proceeds to state, however, that " they are 
willing to make a large ofifering to preserve the Union, and, 
with a distinct declaration that it is a concession on our part, 
we will consent that the same rate of duty may be imposed 
upon the protected articles that shall be imposed upon the 



Proclamation 2 1 3 

unprotected, provided that no more revenue be raised than 
is necessary to meet the demands of the Government for 
constitutional purposes, and provided also that a duty sub- 
stantially uniform be imposed upon all foreign imports." 

It is also true that in his message to the legislature, when 
urging the necessity of providing " means of securing their 
safety by ample resources for repelling force by force," the 
governor of South Carolina observes that he " can not but 
think that on a calm and dispassionate review by Congress 
and the functionaries of the General Government of the true 
merits of this controversy the arbitration by a call of a con- 
vention of all the States, which we sincerely and anxiously 
seek and desire, will be accorded to us." 

From the diversity of terms indicated in these two im- 
portant documents, taken in connection with the progress 
of recent events in that quarter, there is too much reason 
to apprehend, without in any manner doubting the inten- 
tions of those public functionaries, that neither the terms 
proposed in the address of the convention nor those alluded 
to in the message of the governor would appease the excite- 
ment which has led to the present excesses. It is obvious, 
however, that should the latter be insisted on they present 
an alternative which the General Government of itself can 
by no possibility grant, since by an express provision of the 
Constitution Congress can call a convention for the purpose 
of proposing amendments only " on the application of the 
legislatures of two-thirds of the States." And it is not per- 
ceived that the terms presented in the address are more 
practicable than those referred to in the message. 

It will not escape attention that the conditions on which 
it is said in the address of the convention they " would be 
willing to acquiesce " form no part of the ordinance. While 
this ordinance bears all the solemnity of a fundamental law, 
is to be authoritative upon all within the limits of South 
Carolina, and is absolute and unconditional in its terms, the 
address conveys only the sentiments of the convention, in 
no binding or practical form ; one is the act of the State, the 
other only the expression of the opinions of the members 



214 Andrew Jackson 

of the convention. To limit the effect of that solemn act 
by any terms or conditions whatever, they should have been 
embodied in it, and made of import no less authoritative 
than the act itself. By the positive enactments of the ordi- 
nance the execution of the laws of the Union is absolutely 
prohibited, and the address offers no other prospect of their 
being again restored, even in the modified form proposed, 
than what depends upon the improbable contingency that 
amid changing events and increasing excitement the senti- 
ments of the present members of the convention and of their 
successors will remain the same. 

It is to be regretted, however, that these conditions, even 
if they had been offered in the same binding form, are so 
undefined, depend upon so many contingencies, and are so 
directly opposed to the known opinions and interests of the 
great body of the American people as to be almost hopeless 
of attainment. The majority of the States and of the people 
will certainly not consent that the protecting duties shall be 
wholly abrogated, never to be reenacted at any future time 
or in any possible contingency. As little practicable is it to 
provide that " the same rate of duty shall be imposed upon 
the protected articles that shall be imposed upon the unpro- 
tected," which, moreover, would be severely oppressive to 
the poor, and in time of war would add greatly to its rigors. 
And though there can be no objection to the principle, prop- 
erly understood, that no more revenue shall be raised than 
is necessary for the constitutional purposes of the Govern- 
ment, which principle has been already recommended by the 
Executive as the true basis of taxation, yet it is very certain 
that South Carolina alone can not be permitted to decide 
what these constitutional purposes are. 

The period which constitutes the due time in which the 
terms proposed in the address are to be accepted would seem 
to present scarcely less dif^culty than the terms themselves. 
Though the revenue laws are already declared to be void in 
South Carolina, as well as the bonds taken under them and 
the judicial proceedings for carrying them into effect, yet 
as the full action and operation of the ordinance are to be 



Proclamation 2 1 5 

suspended until the ist of February the interval may be 
assumed as the time within which it is expected that the 
most complicated portion of the national legislation, a sys- 
tem of long standing and affecting great interests in the 
community, is to be rescinded and abolished. If this be re- 
quired, it is clear that a compliance is impossible. 

In the uncertainty, then, that exists as to the duration of 
the ordinance and of the enactments for enforcing it, it be- 
comes imperiously the duty of the Executive of the United 
States, acting with a proper regard to all the great inter- 
ests committed to his care, to treat those acts as absolute 
and unlimited. They are so as far as his agency is con- 
cerned. He can not either embrace or lead to the perform- 
ance of the conditions. He has already discharged the only 
part in his power by the recommendation in his annual mes- 
sage. The rest is with Congress and the people, and until 
they have acted his duty will require him to look to the ex- 
isting state of things and act under them according to his 
high obligations. 

By these various proceedings, therefore, the State of 
South Carolina has forced the General Government, un- 
avoidably, to decide the new and dangerous alternative of 
permitting a State to obstruct the execution of the laws 
within its limits or seeing it attempt to execute a threat of 
withdrawing from the Union. That portion of the people 
at present exercising the authority of the State solemnly 
assert their right to do either and as solemnly announce 
their determination to do one or the other. 

In my opinion, both purposes are to be regarded as revo- 
lutionary in their character and tendency, and subversive of 
the supremacy of the laws and of the integrity of the Union. 
The result of each is the same, since a State in which, by an 
usurpation of power, the constitutional authority of the Fed- 
eral Government is openly defied and set aside wants only 
the form to be independent of the Union. 

The right of the people of a single State to absolve them- 
selves at will and without the consent of the other States 
from their most solemn obligations, and hazard the liberties 



2i6 Andrew Jackson 

and happiness of the milHons composing this Union, can not 
be acknowledged. Such authority is beheved to be utterly 
repugnant both to the principles upon which the General 
Government is constituted and to the objects which it is 
expressly formed to attain. 

Against all acts which may be alleged to transcend the 
constitutional power of the Government, or which may be 
inconvenient or oppressive in their operation, the Consti- 
tution itself has prescribed the modes of redress. It is the 
acknowledged attribute of free institutions that under them 
the empire of reason and law is substituted for the power of 
the sword. To no other source can appeals for supposed 
wrongs be made consistently with the obligations of South 
Carolina ; to no other can such appeals be made with safety 
at any time ; and to their decisions, when constitutionally 
pronounced, it becomes the duty no less of the public au- 
thorities than of the people in every case to yield a patriotic 
submission. 

That a State or any other great portion of the people, 
suffering under long and intolerable oppression and having 
tried all constitutional remedies without the hope of redress, 
may have a natural right, when their happiness can be no 
otherwise secured, and when they can do so without greater 
injury to others, to absolve themselves from their obliga- 
tions to the Government and appeal to the last resort, needs 
not on the present occasion be denied. 

The existence of this right, however, must depend upon 
the causes which may justify its exercise. It is the ultima 
ratio, which presupposes that the proper appeals to all other 
means of redress have been made in good faith, and which 
can never be rightfully resorted to unless it be unavoidable. 
It is not the right of the State, but of the individual, and of 
all the individuals in the State. It is the right of mankind 
generally to secure by all means in their power the blessings 
of liberty and happiness; but when for these purposes any 
body of men have voluntarily associated themselves under a 
particular form of government, no portion of them can 
dissolve the association without acknowledging the correla- 



Proclamation 2 1 7 

tive right in the remainder to decide whether that dissolu- 
tion can be permitted consistently with the general happi- 
ness. In this view it is a right dependent upon the power to 
enforce it. Such a right, though it may be admitted to pre- 
exist and can not be wholly surrendered, is necessarily sub- 
jected to limitations in all free governments, and in com- 
pacts of all kinds freely and voluntarily entered into, and 
in which the interest and welfare of the individual become 
identified with those of the community of which he is a 
member. In compacts between individuals, however deeply 
they may affect their relations, these principles are acknowl- 
edged to create a sacred obligation ; and in compacts of civil 
government, involving the liberties and happiness of mill- 
ions of mankind, the obligation can not be less. 

Without adverting to the particular theories to which the 
federal compact has given rise, both as to its formation and 
the parties to it, and without inquiring whether it be merely 
federal or social or national, it is sufficient that it must be 
admitted to be a compact and to possess the obligations in- 
cident to a compact ; to be " a compact by which power is 
created on the one hand and obedience exacted on the other ; 
a compact freely, voluntarily, and solemnly entered into by 
the several States and ratified by the people thereof, re- 
spectively; a compact by which the several States and the 
people thereof, respectively, have bound themselves to each 
other and to the Federal Government, and by which the 
Federal Government is bound to the several States and to 
every citizen of the United States." To this compact, in 
whatever mode it may have been done, the people of South 
Carolina have freely and voluntarily given their assent, and 
to the whole and every part of it they are, upon every prin- 
ciple of good faith, inviolably bound. Under this obligation 
they are bound and should be required to contribute their 
portion of the public expense, and to submit to all laws made 
by the common consent, in pursuance of the Constitution, 
for the common defense and general welfare, until they can 
be changed in the mode which the compact has provided for 
the attainment of those great ends of the Government and 



21 8 Andrew Jackson 

of the Union. Nothing less than causes which would justify 
revolutionary remedy can absolve the people from this obli- 
gation, and for nothing less can the Government permit it 
to be done without violating its own obligations, by which, 
under the compact, it is bound to the other States and to 
every citizen of the United States. 

These deductions plainly flow from the nature of the fed- 
eral compact, which is one of limitations, not only upon the 
powers originally possessed by the parties thereto, but also 
upon those conferred on the Government and every depart- 
ment thereof. I It will be freely conceded that by the prin- 
ciples of our system all power is vested in the people, but to 
be exercised in the mode and subject to the checks which 
the people themselves have prescribed. These checks are 
undoubtedly only different modifications of the same great 
popular principle which lies at the foundation of the whole, 
but are not on that account to be less regarded or less 
obligatory. 

Upon the power of Congress, the veto of the Executive 
and the authority of the judiciary, which is to extend to all 
cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution and 
laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, are 
the obvious checks, and the sound action of public opinion, 
with the ultimate power of amendment, are the salutary and 
.o.. only limitation upon the powers of the whole. 

However it may be alleged that a violation of the com- 
pact by the measures of the Government can affect the obli- 
^' gations of the parties, it can not even be pretended that such 
violation can be predicated of those measures until all the 
y .j^yyv" constitutional remedies shall have been fully tried. If the 
■"*'• ' Federal Government exercise powers not warranted by the 

... ./ Constitution, and immediately affecting individuals, it will 
/)J^ ' scarcely be denied that the proper remedy is a recourse to 
p ^ ^1 the judiciary. Such undoubtedly is the remedy for those 

I "^^ * who deem the acts of Congress laying duties and imposts, 

and providing for their collection, to be unconstitutional. 
The whole operation of such laws is upon the individuals 
importing the merchandise. A State is absolutely prohib- 



Proclamation 2 1 9 

ited from laying imposts or duties on imports or exports 
without the consent of Congress, and can not become a 
party under these laws without importing in her own name 
or wrongfully interposing her authority against them. By 
thus interposing, however, she can not rightfully obstruct 
the operation of the laws upon individuals. For their dis- 
obedience to or violation of the laws the ordinary remedies 
through the judicial tribunals would remain. And in a case 
where an individual should be prosecuted for any offense 
against the laws, he could not set up in justification of his 
act a law of the State, which, being unconstitutional, would 
therefore be regarded as null and void. The law of a State 
can not authorize the commission of a crime against the 
United States or any other act which, according to the su- 
preme law of the Union, would be otherwise unlawful ; and 
it is equally clear that if there be any case in which a State, 
as such, is affected by the law beyond the scope of judicial 
power, the remedy consists in appeals to the people, either 
to effect a change in the representation or to procure relief 
by an amendment of the Constitution. But the measures of 
the Government are to be recognized as valid, and conse- 
quently supreme, until these remedies shall have been ef- 
fectually tried, and any attempt to subvert those measures 
or to render the laws subordinate to State authority, and 
afterwards to resort to constitutional redress, is worse than 
evasive. It would not be a proper resistance to " a govern- 
ment of unlimited powers," as has been sometimes pre- 
tended, but unlawful opposition to the very limitations on 
which the harmonious action of the Government and all its 
parts absolutely depends. South Carolina has appealed to 
none of these remedies, but in effect has defied them all. 
While threatening to separate from the Union if any at- 
tempt be made to enforce the revenue laws otherwise than 
through the civil tribunals of the country, she has not only 
not appealed in her own name to those tribunals which the 
Constitution has provided for all cases in law or equity aris- 
ing under the Constitution and laws of the United States, 
but has endeavored to frustrate their proper action on her 



220 Andrew Jackson 

citizens by drawing the cognizance of cases under the rev- 
enue laws to her own tribunals, specially prepared and fitted 
for the purpose of enforcing the acts passed by the State to 
obstruct those laws, and both the judges and jurors of which 
will be bound by the import of oaths previously taken to 
treat the Constitution and laws of the United States in this 
respect as a nullity. Nor has the State made the proper 
appeal to public opinion and to the remedy of amendment; 
for without waiting to learn whether the other States will 
consent to a convention, or if they do will construe or amend 
the Constitution to suit her views, she has of her own au- 
thority altered the import of that instrument and given im- 
mediate effect to the change. In fine, she has set her own 
will and authority above the laws, has made herself arbiter 
in her own cause, and has passed at once over all intermedi- 
ate steps to measures of avowed resistance, which, unless 
they be submitted to, can be enforced only by the sword. 

In deciding upon the course M-hich a high sense of duty 
to all the people of the United States imposes upon the au- 
thorities of the Union in this emergency, it can not be over- 
looked that there is no sufficient cause for the acts of South 
Carolina, or for her thus placing in jeopardy the happiness 
of so many millions of people. Misrule and oppression, to 
warrant the disruption of the free institutions of the Union 
of these States, should be great and lasting, defying all other 
remedy. For causes of minor character the Government 
could not submit to such a catastrophe without a violation 
of its most sacred obligations to the other States of the 
Union who have submitted their destiny to its hands. 

There is in the present instance no such cause, either in 
the degree of misrule or oppression complained of or in the 
hopelessness of redress by constitutional means. The long 
sanction they have received from the proper authorities and 
from the people, not less than the unexampled growth and 
increasing prosperity of so many millions of freemen, attest 
that no such oppression as would justify, or even palliate, 
such a resort can be justly imputed either to the present 
policy or past measures of the Federal Government. 



1 



Proclamation 221 

The same mode of collecting duties, and for the same 
general objects, which began with the foundation of the 
Government, and which has conducted the country through 
its subsequent steps to its present enviable condition of hap- 
piness and renown, has not been changed. Taxation and 
representation, the great principle of the American Revolu- 
tion, have continually gone hand in hand, and at all times 
and in every instance no tax of any kind has been imposed 
without their participation, and, in some instances which 
have been complained of, with the express assent of a part 
of the representatives of South Carolina in the councils of 
the Government. Up to the present period no revenue has 
been raised beyond the necessary wants of the country and 
the authorized expenditures of the Government ; and as soon 
as the burthen of the public debt is removed those charged 
with the administration have promptly recommended a cor- 
responding reduction of revenue. 

That this system thus pursued has resulted in no such 
oppression upon South Carolina needs no other proof than 
the solemn and official declaration of the late chief magis- 
trate of that State in his address to the legislature. In that 
he says that — 

The occurrences of the past year, in connection with our 
domestic concerns, are to be reviewed with a sentiment of 
fervent gratitude to the Great Disposer of Human Events ; 
that tributes of grateful acknowledgment are due for the 
various and multiplied blessings He has been pleased to 
bestow on our people ; that abundant harvests in every quar- 
ter of the State have crowned the exertions of agricultural 
labor; that health almost beyond former precedent has 
blessed our homes, and that there is not less reason for 
thankfulness in surveying our social condition. 

It would indeed be difficult to imagine oppression where 
in the social condition of a people there was equal cause of 
thankfulness as for abundant harvests and varied and mul- 
tiplied blessings with which a kind Providence had favored 
them. 



2 22 Andrew Jackson 

Independently of these considerations, it will not escape 
observation that South Carolina still claims to be a com- 
ponent part of the Union, to participate in the national 
councils and to share in the public benefits without con- 
tributing to the public burdens, thus asserting the dangerous 
anomaly of continuing in an association without acknowl- 
edging any other obligation to its laws than what depends 
upon her own will. 

In this posture of affairs the duty of the Government 
seems to be plain. It inculcates a recognition of that State 
as a member of the Union and subject to its authority, a 
vindication of the just power of the Constitution, the 
preservation of the integrity of the Union, and the execu- 
tion of the laws by all constitutional means. 

The Constitution, which his oath of office obliges him to 
support, declares that the Executive, " shall take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed," and in providing that he 
shall from time to time give to Congress information of the 
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration 
such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient, 
imposes the additional obligation of recommending to Con- 
gress such more efficient provision for executing the laws as 
may from time to time be found requisite. 

The same instrument confers on Congress the power not 
merely to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, 
to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and 
general welfare, but " to make all laws which shall be neces- 
sary and proper for carrying into effect the foregoing 
powers and all other powers vested by the Constitution in 
the Government of the United States or in any department 
or officer thereof," and also to provide for calling forth the 
militia for executing the laws of the Union. In all cases 
similar to the present the duties of the Government become 
the measure of its powers, and whenever it fails to exercise 
a power necessary and proper to the discharge of the duty 
prescribed by the Constitution it violates the public trusts 
not less than it would in transcending its proper limits. 
To refrain, therefore, from the high and solemn duties 



I 



Proclamation 223 

thus enjoined, however painful the performance may 
be, and thereby tacitly permit the rightful authority of 
the Government to be contemned and its laws obstructed 
by a single State, would neither comport with its own 
safety nor the rights of the great body of the American 
people. 

It being thus shown to be the duty of the Executive to 
execute the laws by all constitutional means, it remains to 
consider the extent of those already at his disposal and what 
it may be proper further to provide. 

In the instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury to 
the collectors in South Carolina the provisions and regula- 
tions made by the act of 1799, and also the fines, penalties, 
and forfeitures for their enforcement, are particularly de- 
tailed and explained. It may be well apprehended, however, 
that these provisions may prove inadequate to meet such an 
open, powerful, organized opposition as is to be commenced 
after the ist of February next. 

Subsequently to the date of these instructions and to the 
passage of the ordinance, information has been received 
from sources entitled to be relied on that owing to the popu- 
lar excitement in the State and the effect of the ordinance 
declaring the execution of the revenue laws unlawful a suf- 
ficient number of persons in whom confidence might be 
placed could not be induced to accept the office of inspector 
to oppose with any probability of success the force which 
will no doubt be used when an attempt is made to remove 
vessels and their cargoes from the custody of the officers of 
the customs, and, indeed, that it would be impracticable for 
the collector, with the aid of any number of inspectors whom 
he may be authorized to employ, to preserve the custody 
against such an attempt. 

The removal of the custom-house from Charleston to 
Castle Pinckney was deemed a measure of necessary pre- 
caution, and though the authority to give that direction is 
not questioned, it is nevertheless apparent that a similar pre- 
caution can not be observed in regard to the ports of George- 
town and Beaufort, each of which under the present laws 



2 24 Andrew Jackson 

remains a port of entry and exposed to the obstructions 
meditated in that quarter. 

In considering the best means of avoiding or of prevent- 
ing the apprehended obstruction to the collection of the 
revenue, and the consequences which may ensue, it would 
appear to be proper and necessary to enable the officers of 
the customs to preserve the custody of vessels and their 
cargoes, which by the existing laws they are required to 
take, until the duties to which they are liable shall be paid 
or secured. The mode by which it is contemplated to de- 
prive them of that custody is the process of replevin and 
that of capias in withernam, in the nature of a distress from 
the State tribunals organized by the ordinance. 

Against the proceeding in the nature of a distress it is 
not perceived that the collector can interpose any resistance 
whatever, and against the process of replevin authorized by 
the law of the State he, having no common-law power, can 
only oppose such inspectors as he is by statute authorized 
and may find it practicable to employ, and these, from the 
information already adverted to, are shown to be wholly 
inadequate. 

The respect which that process deserves must therefore 
be considered. 

If the authorities of South Carolina had not obstructed 
the legitimate action of the courts of the United States, or 
if they had permitted the State tribunals to administer the 
law according to their oath under the Constitution and the 
regulations of the laws of the Union, the General Govern- 
ment might have been content to look to them for maintain- 
ing the custody and to encounter the other inconveniences 
arising out of the recent proceedings. Even in that case, 
however, the process of replevin from the courts of the State 
would be irregular and unauthorized. It has been decided 
by the Supreme Court of the United States that the courts 
of the United States have exclusive jurisdiction of all seiz- 
ures made on land or water for a breach of the laws of the 
United States, and any intervention of a State authority 
which, by taking the thing seized out of the hands of the 



Proclamation 225 

United States officer, might obstruct the exercise of this 
jurisdiction is unlawful; that in such case the court of the 
United States having cognizance of the seizure may enforce 
a redelivery of the thing by attachment or other summary 
process; that the question under such a seizure whether a 
forfeiture has been actually incurred belongs exclusively to 
the courts of the United States, and it depends on the final 
decree whether the seizure is to be deemed rightful or tortu- 
ous; and that not until the seizure be finally judged wrong- 
ful and without probable cause by the courts of the United 
States can the party proceed at common law for damages 
in the State courts. 

But by making it " unlawful for any of the constituted 
authorities, whether of the United States or of the State, to 
enforce the laws for the payment of duties, and declaring 
that all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in 
affirmance of the contracts made with purpose to secure the 
duties imposed by the said acts are and shall be held utterly 
null and void," she has in effect abrogated the judicial 
tribunals within her limits in this respect, has virtually de- 
nied the United States access to the courts established by 
their own laws, and declared it unlawful for the judges to 
discharge those duties which they are sworn to perform. In 
lieu of these she has substituted those State tribunals al- 
ready adverted to, the judges whereof are not merely for- 
bidden to allow an appeal or permit a copy of their record, 
but are previously sworn to disregard the laws of the Union 
and enforce those only of South Carolina, and thus deprived 
of the function essential to the judicial character of inquir- 
ing into the validity of the law and the right of the matter, 
become merely ministerial instruments in aid of the con- 
certed obstruction of the laws of the Union. 

Neither the process nor authority of these tribunals thus 
constituted can be respected consistently with the supremacy 
of the laws or the rights and security of the citizen. If they 
be submitted to, the protection due from the Government to 
its officers and citizens is withheld, and there is at once an 
end not only to the laws, but to the Union itself. 



226 Andrew Jackson 

Against such a force as the sheriff may, and which by the 
replevin law of South Carolina it is his duty to exercise, it 
can not be expected that a collector can retain his custody 
with the aid of the inspectors. In such case, it is true, it 
would be competent to institute suits in the United States 
courts against those engaged in the unlawful proceeding, or 
the property might be seized for a violation of the revenue 
laws, and, being libeled in the proper courts, an order might 
be made for its redelivery, which would be committed to the 
marshal for execution. But in that case the fourth section 
of the act, in broad and unqualified terms, makes it the duty 
of the sheriff " to prevent such recapture or seizure, or to 
redeliver the goods, as the case may be," " even under any 
process, order, or decrees, or other pretext contrary to the 
true intent and meaning of the ordinance aforesaid." It is 
thus made the duty of the sheriff to oppose the process of 
the courts of the United States, and for that purpose, if 
need be, to employ the whole power of the county. And the 
act expressly reserves to him all power which, independently 
of its provisions, he could have used. In this reservation it 
obviously contemplates a resort to other means than those 
particularly mentioned. 

It is not to be disguised that the power which it is thus 
enjoined upon the sheriff to employ is nothing less than the 
posse comitatus in all the rigor of the ancient common law. 
This power, though it may be used against unlawful resist- 
ance to judicial process, is in its character forcible, and 
analogous to that conferred upon the marshals by the act 
of 1795. It is, in fact, the embodying of the whole mass 
of the population, under the command of a single individual, 
to accomplish by their forcible aid what could not be ef- 
fected peaceably and by the ordinary means. It may prop- 
erly be said to be a relic of those ages in which the laws 
could be defended rather by physical than moral force, and 
in its origin was conferred upon the sheriffs of England to 
enable them to defend their county against any of the King's 
enemies when they came into the land, as well as for the 
purpose of executing process. In early and less civilized 



Proclamation 227 

times it was intended to include " the aid and attendance of 
all knights and others who were bound to have harness." 
It includes the right of going with arms and military equip- 
ment, and embraces larger classes and greater masses of 
population than can be compelled by the laws of most of the 
States to perform militia duty. If the principles of the 
common law are recognized in South Carolina (and from 
this act it would seem they are), the power of summoning 
the posse comitatus will compel, under the penalty of fine 
and imprisonment, every man over the age of 15, and able 
to travel, to turn out at the call of the sheriff, and with such 
weapons as may be necessary; and it may justify beating, 
and even killing, such as may resist. The use of the posse 
comitatus is therefore a direct application of force, and can 
not be otherwise regarded than as the employment of the 
whole militia force of the county, and in an equally efficient 
form under a different name. No proceeding which resorts 
to this power to the extent contemplated by the act can be 
properly denominated peaceable. 

The act of South Carolina, however, does not rely alto- 
gether upon this forcible remedy. For even attempting to 
resist or disobey, though by the aid only of the ordinary 
officers of the customs, the process of replevin, the collector 
and all concerned are subjected to a further proceeding in 
the nature of a distress of their personal effects, and are, 
moreover, made guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to be 
punished by a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than 
$5,000 and to imprisonment not exceeding two years and 
not less than six months; and for even attempting to exe- 
cute the order of the court for retaking the property the 
marshal and all assisting would be guilty of a misdemeanor 
and liable to a fine of not less than $3,000 nor more than 
$10,000 and to imprisonment not exceeding two years nor 
less than one ; and in case the goods should be retaken under 
such process it is made the absolute duty of the sheriff to 
retake them. 

It is not to be supposed that in the face of these penalties, 
aided by the powerful force of the county, which would 



228 Andrew Jackson 

doubtless be brought to sustain the State officers, either that 
the collector would retain the custody in the first instance 
or that the marshal could summon sufficient aid to retake the 
property pursuant to the order or other process of the court. 

It is, moreover, obvious that in this conflict between the 
powers of the officers of the United States and of the State 
(unless the latter be passively submitted to) the destruction 
to which the property of the officers of the customs would 
be exposed, the commission of actual violence, and the loss 
of lives would be scarcely avoidable. 

Under these circumstances and the provisions of the acts 
of South Carolina the execution of the laws is rendered im- 
practicable even through the ordinary judicial tribunals of 
the United States. There would certainly be fewer difficul- 
ties, and less opportunity of actual collision between the 
officers of the United States and of the State, and the col- 
lection of the revenue would be more effectually secured — 
if, indeed, it can be done in any other way — by placing the 
custom-house beyond the immediate power of the county. 

For this purpose it might be proper to provide that when- 
ever by any unlawful combination or obstruction in any 
State or in any port it should become impracticable faith- 
fully to collect the duties, the President of the United States 
should be authorized to alter and abolish such of the dis- 
tricts and ports of entry as should be necessary, and to es- 
tablish the custom-house at some secure place within some 
port or harbor of such State ; and in such cases it should be 
the duty of the collector to reside at such place, and to de- 
tain all vessels and cargoes until the duties imposed by law 
should be properly secured or paid in cash, deducting in- 
terest; that in such cases it should be unlawful to take the 
vessel and cargo from the custody of the proper officer of 
the customs unless by process from the ordinary judicial 
tribunals of the United States, and that in case of an at- 
tempt otherwise to take the property by a force too great to 
be overcome by the officers of the customs it should be law- 
ful to protect the i)ossession of the officers by the employ- 
ment of the land and naval forces and militia, under pro- 



Proclamation 229 

visions similar to those authorized by the eleventh section 
of the act of the 9th of January, 1809. 

This provision, however, would not shield the officers and 
citizens of the United States, acting under the laws, from 
suits and prosecutions in the tribunals of the State which 
might thereafter be brought against them, nor would it 
protect their property from the proceeding by distress, and 
it may well be apprehended that it would be insufficient to 
insure a proper respect to the process of the constitutional 
tribunals in prosecutions for offenses against the United 
States and to protect the authorities of the United States, 
whether judicial or ministerial, in the performance of their 
duties. It would, moreover, be inadequate to extend the 
protection due from the Government to that portion of the 
people of South Carolina against outrage and oppression of 
any kind who may manifest their attachment and yield obe- 
dience to the laws of the Union. 

It may therefore be desirable to revive, with some modifi- 
cations better adapted to the occasion, the sixth section of 
the act of the 3d March, 181 5, which expired on the 4th 
March, 181 7, by the limitation of that of 27th April, 18 16, 
and to provide that in any case where suit shall be brought 
against any individual in the courts of the State for any act 
done under the laws of the United States he should be au- 
thorized to remove the said cause by petition into the circuit 
court of the United States without any copy of the record, 
and that the court should proceed to hear and determine the 
same as if it had been originally instituted therein ; and that 
in all cases of injuries to the persons or property of indi- 
viduals for disobedience to the ordinance and laws of South 
Carolina in pursuance thereof redress may be sought in the 
courts of the United States. It may be expedient also, by 
modifying the resolution of the 3d March, 1791, to author- 
ize the marshals to make the necessary provision for the 
safe-keeping of prisoners committed under the authority of 
the United States. 

Provisions less than these, consisting as they do for the 
most part rather of a revival of the policy of former acts 



23° Andrew Jackson 

called for by the existing- emergency than of the introduc- 
tion of any unusual or rigorous enactments, would not cause 
the laws of the Union to be properly respected or enforced. 
It is believed these would prove adequate unless the military 
forces of the State of South Carolina authorized by the late 
act of the legislature should be actually embodied and called 
out in aid of their proceedings and of the provisions of the 
ordinance generally. Even in that case, however, it is be- 
lieved that no more will be necessary than a few modifica- 
tions of its terms to adapt the act of 1795 to the present 
emergency, as by that act the provisions of the law of 1792 
were accommodated to the crisis then existing, and by con- 
ferring authority upon the President to give it operation 
during the session of Congress, and without the ceremony 
of a proclamatioH, whenever it shall be officially made 
known to him by the authority of any State, or by the courts 
of the United States, that within the limits of such State 
the laws of the United States will be openly opposed and 
their execution obstructed by the actual employment of mil- 
itary force, or by any unlawful means whatsoever too great 
to be otherwise overcome. 

In closing this communication, I should do injustice to 
my own feelings not to express my confident reliance upon 
the disposition of each department of the Government to 
perform its duty and to cooperate in all measures necessary 
in the present emergency. 

The crisis undoubtedly invokes the fidelity of the patriot 
and the sagacity of the statesman, not more in removing 
such portion of the public burden as may be necessary than 
in preserving the good order of society and in the main- 
tenance of well-regulated liberty. 

While a forbearing spirit may, and I trust will, be exer- 
cised toward the errors of our brethren in a particular quar- 
ter, duty to the rest of the Union demands that open and 
organized resistance to the laws should not be executed with 
impunity. 

The rich inheritance bequeathed by our fathers has de- 
volved upon us the sacred ohligatiun of ])reserving it by the 



Proclamation 231 

same virtues which conducted them through the eventful 
scenes of the Revolution and ultimately crowned their strug- 
gle with the noblest model of civil institutions. They be- 
queathed to us a Government of laws and a Federal Union 
founded upon the great principle of popular representation. 
After a successful experiment of forty- four years, at a mo- 
ment when the Government and the Union are the objects 
of the hopes of the friends of civil liberty throughout the 
world, and in the midst of public and individual prosperity 
unexampled in history, we are called to decide whether these 
laws possess any force and that Union the means of self- 
preservation. The decision of this question by an enlight- 
ened and patriotic people can not be doubtful. For myself, 
fellow-citizens, devoutly relying upon that kind Providence 
which has hitherto watched over our destinies, and actuated 
by a profound reverence for those institutions I have so 
much cause to love, and for the American people, whose 
partiality honored me with their highest trust, I have deter- 
mined to spare no effort to discharge the duty which in this 
conjuncture is devolved upon me. That a similar spirit will 
actuate the representatives of the American people is not to 
be questioned ; and I fervently pray that the Great Ruler of 
Nations may so guide your deliberations and our joint meas- 
ures as that they may prove salutary examples not only to 
the present but to future times, and solemnly proclaim that 
the Constitution and the laws are supreme and the Union 
indissoluble. 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation.* 

(December lo, 1832.) 
By Andrew Jackson, President of the United States. 

Whereas a convention assembled in the State of South 
Carohna have passed an ordinance by which they declare 
" that the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of 
the United States purporting to be laws for the imposing 
of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign com- 
modities, and now having actual operation and effect within 
the United States, and more especially " two acts for the 

* This most famous of President Jackson's state papers was written 
by his Secretary of State, Edward Livingston, of Louisiana. Parton 
records {Life of Jackson, IIL, p. 466) that Jackson did not like the 
constitutional doctrines of the Proclamation, and Chief Justice Taney, 
who was Jackson's Attorney-General at the time, recorded nearly 
thirty years afterward that had he been in Washington when the 
Proclamation was issued he would have objected to some of its 
doctrines. {Tyler's Taney, i88.) The Proclamation is Madisonian 
rather than Jacksonian in temper. Jackson was not suspected of 
holding such constitutional doctrines as it expresses. Its great and 
ruling principle is forcibly expressed in the passage: "I consider, then, 
the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, 
incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly 
by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsist- 
ent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of 
the great object for which it was formed." 

This famous state paper was one of the three "sources of reference" 
which Lincoln called for and with which "he locked himself up in a 
room upstairs over a store across the street from the state house, and 
there, cut off from all communication and intrusion, he prepared the 
(first inaugural) address." Herndon's Life of Lincoln, III., p. 478. 

The Proclamation has become a great Jacksonian tradition, and 
sets Jackson apart among presidents of the United States. It should 
be read in its large meaning and application as interpreted by events. 
Jackson's personal attitude toward Nullification is revealed in his 
letters, here printed for the first time, in the first part of this volume. 

231 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 233 

same purposes passed on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 
14th of July, 1832, "are unauthorized by the Constitution 
of the United States, and violate the true meaning and in- 
tent thereof, and are null and void and no law," nor binding 
on the citizens of that State or its officers; and by the said 
ordinance it is further declared to be unlawful for any of 
the constituted authorities of the State or of the United 
States to enforce the payment of the duties imposed by the 
said acts within the same State, and that it is the duty of the 
legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to give 
full effect to the said ordinance ; and 

Whereas by the said ordinance it is further ordained that 
in no case of law or equity decided in the courts of said State 
wherein shall be drawn in question the validity of the said 
ordinance, or of the acts of the legislature that may be 
passed to give it effect, or of the said laws of the United 
States, no appeal shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of 
the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be per- 
mitted or allowed for that purpose, and that any person 
attempting to take such appeal shall be punished as for con- 
tempt of court ; and, finally, the said ordinance declares that 
the people of South Carolina will maintain the said ordi- 
nance at every hazard, and that they will consider the 
passage of any act by Congress abolishing or closing the 
ports of the said State or otherwise obstructing the free 
ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or 
any other act of the Federal Government to coerce the State, 
shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to 
enforce the said acts otherwise than through the civil tribu- 
nals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continu- 
ance of South Carolina in the Union, and that the people of 
the said State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved 
from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their 
political connection with the people of the other States, and 
will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government 
and do all other acts and things which sovereign and inde- 
pendent states may of right do ; and 

Whereas the said ordinance prescribes to the people of 



2 34 Andrew Jackson 

South Carolina a course of conduct in direct violation of 
their duty as citizens of the United States, contrary to the 
laws of their country, subversive of its Constitution, and 
having for its object the destruction of the Union — that 
Union which, coeval with our political existence, led our 
fathers, without any other ties to unite them than those of 
patriotism and a common cause, through a sanguinary 
struggle to a glorious independence ; that sacred Union, 
hitherto inviolate, which, perfected by our happy Constitu- 
tion, has brought us, by the favor of Heaven, to a state of 
prosperity at home and high consideration abroad rarely, if 
ever, equaled in the history of nations : 

To preserve this bond of our political existence from de- 
struction, to maintain inviolate this state of national honor 
and prosperity, and to justify the confidence my fellow-citi- 
zens have reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson, President of 
the United States, have thought proper to issue this my 
proclamation, stating my views of the Constitution and laws 
applicable to the measures adopted by the convention of 
South Carolina and to the reasons they have put forth to 
sustain them, declaring the course which duty will require 
me to pursue, and, appealing to the understanding and 
patriotism of the people, warn them of the consequences that 
must inevitably result from an observance of the dictates of 
the convention. 

Strict duty would require of me nothing more than the 
exercise of those powers with which I am now or may here- 
after be invested for preserving the peace of the Union and 
for the execution of the laws ; but the imposing aspect which 
opposition has assumed in this case, by clothing itself with 
State authority, and the deep interest which the people of 
the United States must all feel in preventing a resort to 
stronger measures while there is a hope that anything will 
be yielded to reasoning and remonstrance, perhaps demand, 
and will certainly justify, a full exposition to South Caro- 
lina and the nation of the views I entertain of this impor- 
tant question, as well as a distinct enunciation of the course 
which my sense of duty will require me to pursue. 



1 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 235 

The ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible right 
of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitutional and too 
oppressive to be endured, but on the strange position that 
any one State may not only declare an act of Congress void, 
but prohibit its execution ; that they may do this consistently 
with the Constitution ; that the true construction of that in- 
strument permits a State to retain its place in the Union and 
yet be bound by no other of its laws than those it may choose 
to consider as constitutional. It is true, they add, that to 
justify this abrogation of a law it must be palpably contrary 
to the Constitution ; but it is evident that to give the right 
of resisting laws of that description, coupled with the un- 
controlled right to decide what laws deserve that character, 
is to give the power of resisting all laws ; for as by the the- 
ory there is no appeal, the reasons alleged by the State, good 
or bad, must prevail. If it should be said that public opin- 
ion is a sufficient check against the abuse of this power, it 
may be asked why it is not deemed a sufficient guard against 
the passage of an unconstitutional act by Congress ? There 
is, however, a restraint in this last case which makes the 
assumed power of a State more indefensible, and which does 
not exist in the other. There are two appeals from an un- 
constitutional act passed by Congress — one to the judiciary, 
the other to the people and the States. There is no appeal 
from the State decision in theory, and the practical illustra- 
tion shows that the courts are closed against an application 
to review it, both judges and jurors being sworn to decide 
in its favor. But reasoning on this subject is superfluous 
when our social compact, in express terms, declares that the 
laws of the United States, its Constitution, and treaties 
made under it are the supreme law of the land, and, for 
greater caution, adds " that the judges in every State shall 
be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of 
any State to the contrary notwithstanding." And it may be 
asserted without fear of refutation that no federative gov- 
ernment could exist without a similar provision. Look for 
a moment to the consequence. If South Carolina considers 
the revenue laws unconstitutional and has a right to prevent 



23^ Andrew Jackson 

their execution in the port of Charleston, there would be a 
clear constitutional objection to their collection in every 
other port; and no revenue could be collected anywhere, for 
all imposts must be equal. It is no answer to repeat that an 
unconstitutional law is no law so long as the question of its 
legality is to be decided by the State itself, for every law 
operating injuriously upon any local interest will be perhaps 
thought, and certainly represented, as unconstitutional, and, 
as has been shown, there is no appeal. 

If this doctrine had been established at an earlier day, the 
Union would have been dissolved in its infancy. The excise 
law in Pennsylvania, the embargo and nonintercourse law 
in the Eastern States, the carriage tax in Virginia, were all 
deemed unconstitutional, and were more unequal in their 
operation than any of the laws now complained of ; but, for- 
tunately, none of those States discovered that they had the 
right now claimed by South Carolina. The war into which 
we were forced to support the dignity of the nation and the 
rights of our citizens might have ended in defeat and dis- 
grace, instead of victory and honor, if the States who sup- 
posed it a ruinous and unconstitutional measure had thought 
they possessed the right of nullifying the act by which it was 
declared and denying supplies for its prosecution. Hardly 
and unequally as those measures bore upon several members 
of the Union, to the legislatures of none did this efficient 
and peaceable remedy, as it is called, suggest itself. The 
discovery of this important feature in our Constitution was 
reserved to the present day. To the statesmen of South 
Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of that 
State will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it to 
practice. 

If the doctrine of a State veto upon the laws of the Union 
carries with it internal evidence of its impracticable absurd- 
ity, our constitutional history will also afford abundant 
proof that it would have been repudiated with indignation 
had it been proposed to form a feature in our Government. 

In our colonial state, although dependent on another 
power, we very early considered ourselves as connected by 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 237 

common interest with each other. Leagues were formed 
for common defense, and before the declaration of inde- 
pendence we were known in our aggregate character as the 
United Colonies of America. That decisive and important 
step was taken jointly. We declared ourselves a nation by 
a joint, not by several acts, and when the terms of our Con- 
federation were reduced to form it was in that of a solemn 
league of several States, by which they agreed that they 
would collectively form one nation for the purpose of con- 
ducting some certain domestic concerns and all foreign re- 
lations. In the instrument forming that Union is found an 
article which declares that " every State shall abide by the 
determinations of Congress on all questions which by that 
Confederation should be submitted to them." 

Under the Confederation, then, no State could legally 
annul a decision of the Congress or refuse to submit to its 
execution ; but no provision was made to enforce these de- 
cisions. Congress made requisitions, but they were not 
complied with. The Government could not operate on in- 
dividuals. They had no judiciary, no means of collecting 
revenue. 

But the defects of the Confederation need not be detailed. 
Under its operation we could scarcely be called a nation. We 
had neither prosperity at home nor consideration abroad. 
This state of things could not be endured, and our present 
happy Constitution was formed, but formed in vain if this 
fatal doctrine prevails. It was formed for important ob- 
jects that are announced in the preamble, made in the name 
and by the authority of the people of the United States, 
whose delegates framed and whose conventions approved it. 
The most important among these objects — that which is 
placed first in rank, on which all the others rest — is *' to 
form a more perfect union." Now, is it possible that even 
if there were no express provision giving supremacy to the 
Constitution and laws of the United States over those of the 
States, can it be conceived that an instrument made for the 
purpose of *' forming a more perfect union " than that of 
the Confederation could be so constructed by the assembled 



238 Andrew Jackson 

wisdom of our country as to substitute for that Confedera- 
tion a form of government dependent for its existence on 
the local interest, the party spirit, of a State, or of a pre- 
vaiHng faction in a State? Every man of plain, unsophisti- 
cated understanding who hears the question will give such 
an answer as will preserve the Union. Metaphysical sublety, 
in pursuit of an impracticable theory, could alone have de- 
vised one that is calculated to destroy it. 

I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United 
States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the exist- 
ence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of 
the Constitution, unauthorised by its spirit, inconsistent 
with every principle on which it was founded, and destruc- 
tive of the great object for which it was formed. 

After this general view of the leading principle, we must 
examine the particular application of it which is made in the 
ordinance. 

The preamble rests its justification on these grounds: It 
assumes as a fact that the obnoxious laws, although they 
purport to be laws for raising revenue, were in reality in- 
tended for the protection of manufactures, which purpose it 
asserts to be unconstitutional; that the operation of these 
laws is unequal ; that the amount raised by them is greater 
than is required by the wants of the Government; and, 
finally, that the proceeds are to be applied to objects un- 
authorized by the Constitution. These are the only causes 
alleged to justify an open opposition to the laws of the 
country and a threat of seceding from the Union if any 
attempt should be made to enforce them. The first virtu- 
ally acknowledges that the law in question was passed under 
a power expressly given by the Constitution to lay and col- 
lect imposts; but its constitutionality is drawn in question 
from the motives of those who passed it. However ap- 
parent this purpose may be in the present case, nothing can 
be more dangerous than to admit the position that an un- 
constitutional purpose entertained by the members who 
assent to a law enacted under a constitutional power shall 
make that law void. For how is that purpose to be ascer- 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 239 

tained? Who is to make the scrutiny? How often may 
bad purposes be falsely imputed, in how many cases are 
they concealed by false professions, in how many is no 
declaration of motive made ? Admit this doctrine, and you 
give to the States an uncontrolled right to decide, and every 
law may be annulled under this pretext. If, therefore, the 
absurd and dangerous doctrine should be admitted that a 
State may annul an unconstitutional law, or one that it 
deems such, it will not apply to the present case. 

The next objection is that the laws in question operate 
unequally. This objection may be made with truth to every 
law that has been or can be passed. The wisdom of man 
never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate 
with perfect equality. If the unequal operation of a law 
makes it unconstitutional, and if all laws of that description 
may be abrogated by any State for that cause, then, indeed, 
is the Federal Constitution unworthy of the slightest effort 
for its preservation. We have hitherto relied on it as the 
perpetual bond of our Union ; we have received it as the 
work of the assembled wisdom of the nation; we have 
trusted to it as to the sheet anchor of our safety in the 
stormy times of conflict with a foreign or domestic foe ; we 
have looked to it with sacred awe as the palladium of our 
liberties, and with all the solemnities of religion have 
pledged to each other our lives and fortunes here and our 
hopes of happiness hereafter in its defense and support. 
Were we mistaken, my countrymen, in attaching this im- 
portance to the Constitution of our country ? Was our de- 
votion paid to the wretched, inefficient, clumsy contrivance 
which this new doctrine would make it? Did we pledge 
ourselves to the support of an airy nothing — a bubble that 
must be blown away by the first breath of disaffection? 
Was this self-destroying, visionary theory the work of the 
profound statesman, the exalted patriots, to whom the task 
of constitutional reform was intrusted? Did the name of 
Washington sanction, did the States deliberately ratify, such 
an anomaly in the history of fundamental legislation ? No ; 
we were not mistaken. The letter of this great instrument 



24° Andrew Jackson 

is free from this radical fault. Its language directly con- 
tradicts the imputation ; its spirit, its evident intent, contra- 
dicts it. No; we did not err. Our Constitution does not 
contain the absurdity of giving power to make laws and 
another to resist them. The sages whose memory will al- 
ways be reverenced have given us a practical and, as they 
hoped, a permanent constitutional compact. The Father of 
his Country did not affix his revered name to so palpable an 
absurdity. Nor did the States, when they severally ratified 
it, do so under the impression that a veto on the laws of the 
United States was reserved to them or that they could exer- 
cise it by implication. Search the debates in all their con- 
ventions, examine the speeches of the most zealous opposers 
of Federal authority, look at the amendments that were pro- 
posed ; they are all silent — not a syllable uttered, not a vote 
given, not a motion made to correct the explicit supremacy 
given to the laws of the Union over those of the States, or 
to show that implication, as is now contended, could defeat 
it. No; we have not erred. The Constitution is still the 
object of our reverence, the bond of our Union, our defense 
in danger, the source of our prosperity in peace. It shall 
descend, as we have received it, uncorrupted by sophistical 
construction, to our posterity ; and the sacrifices of local in- 
terest, of State prejudices, of personal animosities, that were 
made to bring it into existence, will again be patriotically 
offered for its support. 

The two remaining objections made by the ordinance to 
these laws are that the sums intended to be raised by them 
are greater than are required and that the proceeds will be 
unconstitutionally employed. 

The Constitution has given, expressly, to Congress the 
right of raising revenue and of determining the sum the 
public exigencies will require. The States have no control 
over the exercise of this right other than that which results 
from the power of changing the representatives who abuse 
it, and thus procure redress. Congress may undoubtedly 
abuse this discretionary power; but the same may be said 
of others with which they are vested. Yet the discretion 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 241 

must exist somewhere. The Constitution has given it to the 
representatives of all the people, checked by the represent- 
atives of the States and by the Executive power. The South 
Carolina construction gives it to the legislature or the con- 
vention of a single State, where neither the people of the 
different States, nor the States in their separate capacity, 
nor the Chief Magistrate elected by the people have any 
representation. Which is the most discreet disposition of 
the power? I do not ask you, fellow-citizens, which is the 
constitutional disposition; that instrument speaks a lan- 
guage not to be misunderstood. But if you were assembled 
in general convention, which would you think the safest 
depository of this discretionary power in the last resort? 
Would you add a clause giving it to each of the States, or 
would you sanction the wise provisions already made by 
your Constitution? If this should be the result of your de- 
liberations when providing for the future, are you, can you, 
be ready to risk all that we hold dear, to establish, for a 
temporary and a local purpose, that which you must ac- 
knowledge to be destructive, and even absurd, as a general 
provision ? Carry out the consequences of this right vested 
in the different States, and you must perceive that the crisis 
your conduct presents at this day would recur whenever any 
law of the United States displeased any of the States, and 
that we should soon cease to be a nation. 

The ordinance, with the same knowledge of the future 
that characterizes a former objection, tells you that the pro- 
ceeds of the tax will be unconstitutionally applied. If this 
could be ascertained with certainty, the objection would with 
more propriety be reserved for the law so applying the pro- 
ceeds, but surely can not be urged against the laws levying 
the duty. 

These are the allegations contained in the ordinance. Ex- 
amine them seriously, my fellow-citizens; judge for your- 
selves. I appeal to you to determine whether they are 
so clear, so convincing, as to leave no doubt of their cor- 
rectness; and even if you should come to this conclusion, 
how far they justify the reckless, destructive course which 



242 Andrew Jackson 

you are directed to pursue. Review these objections and 
the conclusions drawn from them once more. What are 
they? Every law, then, for raising revenue, according to 
the South Carolina ordinance, may be rightfully annulled, 
unless it be so framed as no law ever will or can be framed. 
Congress have a right to pass laws for raising revenue and 
each State have a right to oppose their execution — two 
rights directly opposed to each other; and yet is this absurd- 
ity supposed to be contained in an instrument drawn for the 
express purpose of avoiding collisions between the States 
and the General Government by an assembly of the most 
enlightened statesmen and purest patriots ever embodied 
for a similar purpose ? 

In vain have these sages declared that Congress shall 
have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and ex- 
cises ; in vain have they provided that they shall have power 
to pass laws which shall be necessary and proper to carry 
those powers into execution, that those laws and that Con- 
stitution shall be the " supreme law of the land, and that the 
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in 
the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary not- 
withstanding ; " in vain have the people of the several States 
solemnly sanctioned these provisions, made them their para- 
mount law, and individually sworn to support them when- 
ever they were called on to execute any office. Vain pro- 
visions! ineffectual restrictions! vile profanation of oaths! 
miserable mockery of legislation! if a bare majority of the 
voters in any one State may, on a real or supposed knowl- 
edge of the intent with which a law has been passed, declare 
themselves free from its operation ; say, here it gives too 
little; there, too much, and operates unequally; here it suf- 
fers articles to be free that ought to be taxed ; there it taxes 
those that ought to be free ; in this case the proceeds are 
intended to be applied to purposes which we do not approve; 
in that, the amount raised is more than is wanted. Congress, 
it is true, are invested by the Constitution with the right of 
deciding these questions according to their sound discretion. 
Congress is composed of the representatives of all the States 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 243 

and of all the people of all the States. But we, part of the 
people of one State, to whom the Constitution has given no 
power on the subject, from whom it has expressly taken it 
away ; we, who have solemnly agreed that this Constitution 
shall be our law ; we, most of whom have sworn to support 
it — we now abrogate this law and swear, and force others 
to swear, that it shall not be obeyed; and we do this not 
because Congress have no right to pass such laws — this we 
do not allege — but because they have passed them with im- 
proper views. They are unconstitutional from the motives 
of those who passed them, which we can never with certainty 
know; from their unequal operation, although it is impos- 
sible, from the nature of things, that they should be equal ; 
and from the disposition which we presume may be made of 
their proceeds, although that disposition has not been de- 
clared. This is the plain meaning of the ordinance in rela- 
tion to laws which it abrogates for alleged unconstitution- 
ality. But it does not stop there. It repeals in express terms 
an important part of the Constitution itself and of laws 
passed to give it effect, which have never been alleged to be 
unconstitutional. 

The Constitution declares that the judicial powers of 
the United States extend to cases arising under the laws of 
the United States, and that such laws, the Constitution, and 
treaties shall be paramount to the State constitutions and 
laws. The judiciary act prescribes the mode by which the 
case may be brought before a court of the United States by 
appeal when a State tribunal shall decide against this pro- 
vision of the Constitution. The ordinance declares there 
shall be no appeal — makes the State law paramount to the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, forces judges 
and jurors to swear that they will disregard their provisions, 
and even makes it penal in a suitor to attempt relief by ap- 
peal. It further declares that it shall not be lawful for the 
authorities of the United States or of that State to enforce 
the payment of duties imposed by the revenue laws within 
its limits. 

Here is a law of the United States, not even pretended to 



244 Andrew Jackson 

be unconstitutional, repealed by the authority of a small 
majority of the voters of a single State. Here is a provision 
of the Constitution which is solemnly abrogated by the 
same authority. 

On such expositions and reasonings the ordinance grounds 
not only an assertion of the right to annul the laws of which 
it complains, but to enforce it by a threat of seceding from 
the Union if any attempt is made to execute them. 

This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the 
Constitution, which, they say, is a compact between sov- 
ereign States who have preserved their whole sovereignty 
and therefore are svibject to no superior; that because they 
made the compact they can break it when in their opinion 
it has been departed from by the other States. Fallacious 
as this course of reasoning is, it enlists State pride and finds 
advocates in the honest prejudices of those who have not 
studied the nature of our Government sufficiently to see the 
radical error oh which it rests. 

The people of the United States formed the Constitution, 
acting through the State legislatures in making the compact, 
to meet and discuss its provisions, and acting in separate 
conventions when they ratified those provisions; but the 
terms used in its construction show it to be a Government 
in which the people of all the States, collectively, are repre- 
sented. We are one people in the choice of President and 
Vice-President. Here the States have no other agency than 
to direct the mode in which tlie votes shall be given. The 
candidates having the majority of all the votes are chosen. 
The electors of a majority of States may have given their 
votes for one candidate, and yet another may be chosen. 
The people, then, and not the States, are represented in the 
executive branch. 

In the House of Representatives there is this difference, 
that the people of one State do not, as in the case of Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, all vote for the same officers. The 
people of all the States do not vote for all the members, each 
State electing only its own representatives. But this creates 
no material distinction. When chosen, they are all repre- 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 245 

sentatives of the United States, not representatives of the 
particular State from which they come. They are paid by 
the United States, not by the State ; nor are they account- 
able to it for any act done in the performance of their legis- 
lative functions ; and however they may in practice, as it is 
their duty to do, consult and prefer the interests of their 
particular constituents when they come in conflict with any 
other partial or local interest, yet it is their first and highest 
duty, as representatives of the United States, to promote 
the general good. 

r"' The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a 
government, not a league; and whether it be formed by 
compact between the States or in any other manner, its char- 
acter is the same. It is a Government in which all the people 
are represented, which operates directly on the people in- 
dividually, not upon the States ; they retained all the power 
they did not grant. But each State, having expressly parted 
with so many powers as to constitute, jointly with the other 
States, a single nation, can not, from that period, possess 
any right to secede, because such secession does not break a 
league, but destroys the unity of a nation; and any injury 
to that unity is not only a breach which would result from 
the contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against 
the whole Union. To say that any State may at pleasure 
secede from the Union is to say that the United States are 
not a nation, because it would be a solecism to contend that 
any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the 
other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any 
offense. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be 
morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call 
it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of 
terms, and can only be done through gross error or to de- 
ceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would 
pause before they made a revolution or incur the penalties ^ 

consequent on a failure. ] ,.., JC^^^kU.<Mvv<»^ 

Because the Union was formed by a compact, it is said ^i^ju.y^S'Ui, fo 
the parties to that compact may, when they feel themselves 7^3^ 
aggrieved, depart from it ; but it is precisely because it is a 



246 Andrew Jackson 

compact that they can not. A compact is an agreement or 
binding obligation. It may by its terms have a sanction or 
penalty for its breach, or it may not. If it contains no sanc- 
tion, it may be broken with no other consequence than moral 
guilt; if it have a sanction, then the breach incurs the desig- 
nated or implied penalty. A league between independent 
nations generally has no sanction other than a moral one ; 
or if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common 
superior it can not be enforced. A government, on the con- 
trary, always has a sanction, express or implied ; and in our 
case it is both necessarily implied and expressly given. An 
attempt, by force of arms, to destroy a government is an 
offense, by whatever means the constitutional compact may 
have been formed ; and such government has the right by 
the law of self-defense to pass acts for punishing the of- 
fender, unless that right is modified, restrained, or resumed 
by the constitutional act. In our system, although it is modi- 
fied in the case of treason, yet authority is expressly given 
to pass all laws necessary to carry its powers into effect, and 
under this grant provision has been made for punishing acts 
which obstruct the due administration of the laws. 

It would seem superfluous to add anything to show the 
nature of that union which connects us, but as erroneous 
opinions on this subject are the foundation of doctrines the 
most destructive to our peace, I must give some further 
development to my views on this subject. No one, fellow- 
citizens, has a higher reverence for the reserved rights of 
the States than the Magistrate who now addresses you. No 
one would make greater personal sacrifices or official exer- 
tions to defend them from violation ; but equal care must be 
taken to prevent, on their part, an improper interference 
with or resumption of the rights they have vested in the 
nation. The line has not been so distinctly drawn as to 
avoid doubts in some cases of the exercise of power. Men 
of the best intentions and soundest views may differ in their 
construction of some parts of the Constitution ; but there 
are others on which dispassionate reflection can leave no 
doubt. Of this nature appears to be the assumed right of 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 247 

secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged undi- 
vided sovereignty of the States and on their having formed 
in this sovereign capacity a compact which is called the Con- 
stitution, from which, because they made it, they have the 
right to secede. Both of these positions are erroneous, and 
some of the arguments to prove them so have been antici- 
pated. 

The States severally have not retained their entire sov- 
ereignty. It has been shown that in becoming parts of a 
nation, not members of a league, they surrendered many of 
their essential parts of sovereignty. The right to make 
treaties, declare war, levy taxes, exercise exclusive judicial 
and legislative powers, were all of them functions of sov- 
ereign power. The States, then, for all these important 
purposes were no longer sovereign. The allegiance of their 
citizens was transferred, in the first instance, to the Govern- 
ment of the United States ; they became American citizens 
and owed obedience to the Constitution of the United States 
and to laws made in conformity with the powers it vested 
in Congress. This last position has not been and can not 
be denied. How, then, can that State be said to be sov- 
ereign and independent whose citizens owe obedience to 
laws not made by it and whose magistrates are sworn to 
disregard those laws when they come in conflict with those 
passed by another ? What shows conclusively that the States 
can not be said to have reserved an undivided sovereignty 
is that they expressly ceded the right to punish treason — 
not treason against their separate power, but treason against 
the United States. Treason is an ofifense against sover- 
eignty, and sovereignty must reside with the power to pun- 
ish it. But the reserved rights of the States are not less 
sacred because they have, for their common interest, made 
the General Government the depository of these powers. 
The unity of our political character (as has been shown for 
another purpose) commenced with its very existence. Un- 
der the royal Government we had no separate character; 
our opposition to its oppressions began as united colonies. 
We were the United States under the Confederation, and 



Li 



248 Andrew Jackson 

the name was perpetuated and the Union rendered more 
perfect by the Federal Constitution. In none of these stages 
did we consider ourselves in any other light than as form- 
ing one nation. Treaties and alliances were made in the 
name of all. Troops were raised for the joint defense. 
How, then, with all these proofs that under all changes of 
our position we had, for designated purposes and with de- 
fined powers, created national governments, how is it that 
the most perfect of those several modes of union should 
now be considered as a mere league that may be dissolved 
at pleasure ? It is from an abuse of terms. Compact is used 
as synonymous with league, although the true term is not 
employed, because it would at once show the fallacy of the 
reasoning. It would not do to say that our Constitution was 
only a league, but it is labored to prove it a compact (which 
in one sense it is) and then to argue that as a league is a 
compact every compact between nations must of course be 
a league, and that from such an engagement every sovereign 
power has a right to recede. But it has been shown that in 
this sense the States are not sovereign, and that even if they 
were, and the national Constitution had been formed by 
compact, there would be no right in any one State to exon- 
erate itself from its obligations. 

So obvious are the reasons which forbid this secession 
that it is necessary only to allude to them. The Union was 
formed for the benefit of all. It was produced by mutual 
sacrifices of interests and opinions. Can those sacrifices be 
recalled? Can the States who magnanimously surrendered 
their titles to the territories of the West recall the grant? 
Will the inhabitants of the inland States agree to pay the 
duties that may be imposed without their assent by those on 
the Atlantic or the Gulf for their own benefit? Shall there 
be a free port in one State and onerous duties in another? 
No one believes that any right exists in a single State to 
involve all the others in these and countless other evils con- 
trary to engagements solemnly made. Everyone must see 
that the other States, in self-defense, must oppose it at all 
hazards. 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 249 

These are the alternatives that are presented by the con- 
vention — a repeal of all the acts for raising- revenue, leaving 
the Government without the means of support, or an ac- 
quiescence in the dissolution of our Union by the secession 
of one of its members. When the first was proposed, it was 
known that it could not be listened to for a moment. It was 
known, if force was applied to oppose the execution of the 
laws, that it must be repelled by force ; that Congress could 
not, without involving itself in disgrace and the country in 
ruin, accede to the proposition ; and yet if this is not done 
in a given day, or if any attempt is made to execute the 
laws, the State is by the ordinance declared to be out of the 
Union. The majority of a convention assembled for the 
purpose have dictated these terms, or rather this rejection 
of all terms, in the name of the people of South Carolina. 
It is true that the governor of the State speaks of the sub- 
mission of their grievances to a convention of all the States, 
which, he says, they " sincerely and anxiously seek and de- 
sire." Yet this obvious and constitutional mode of obtain- 
ing the sense of the other States on the construction of the 
federal compact, and amending it if necessary, has never 
been attempted by those who have urged the State on to this 
destructive measure. The State might have proposed the 
call for a general convention to the other States, and Con- 
gress, if a sufficient number of them concurred, must have 
called it. But the first magistrate of South Carolina, when 
he expressed a hope that " on a review by Congress and the 
functionaries of the General Government of the merits of 
the controversy " such a convention will be accorded to 
them, must have known that neither Congress nor any func- 
tionary of the General Government has authority to call 
such a convention unless it be demanded by two-thirds of 
the States. This suggestion, then, is another instance of 
the reckless inattention to the provisions of the Constitution 
with which this crisis has been madly hurried on, or of the 
attempt to persuade the people that a constitutional remedy 
had been sought and refused. If the legislature of South 
Carolina " anxiously desire " a general convention to con- 



\ 



250 Andrew Jackson 

sider their complaints, why have they not made apphcation 
for it in the way the Constitution points out ? The assertion 
that they " earnestly seek " it is completely negatived by the 
omission. 

This, then, is the position in which we stand : A small 
majority of the citizens of one State in the Union have 
elected delegates to a State convention ; that convention has 
ordained that all the revenue laws of the United States must 
be repealed, or that they are no longer a member of the 
Union. The governor of that State has recommended to 
the legislature the raising of an army to carry the secession 
into effect, and that he may be empowered to give clearances 
to vessels in the name of the State. No act of violent op- 
position to the laws has yet been committed, but such a state 
of things is hourly apprehended. And it is the intent of 
this instrument to proclaim, not only that the duty imposed 
on me by the Constitution " to take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed " shall be performed to the extent of the 
powers already vested in me by law, or of such others as the 
wisdom of Congress shall devise and intrust to me for that 
purpose, but to warn the citizens of South Carolina who 
have been deluded into an opposition to the laws of the 
danger they will incur by obedience to the illegal and dis- 
organizing ordinance of the convention ; to exhort those who 
have refused to support it to persevere in their determina- 
tion to uphold the Constitution and laws of their country; 
and to point out to all the perilous situation into which the 
good people of that State have been led, and that the course 
they are urged to pursue is one of ruin and disgrace to the 
very State whose rights they affect to support. 

Fellow-citizens of my native State, let me not only ad- 
monish you, as the First Magistrate of our common coun- 
try, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence 
that a father would over his children whom he saw rushing 
to certain ruin. In that paternal language, with that pater- 
nal feeling, let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are 
deluded by men who are either deceived themselves or wish 
to deceive you. Mark under what pretenses you have been 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 251 

led on to the brink of insurrection and treason on which you 
stand. First, a diminution of the value of your staple com- 
modity, lowered by overproduction in other quarters, and 
the consequent diminution in the value of your lands were 
the sole effect of the tariff laws. The effect of those laws 
was confessedly injurious, but the evil was greatly exag- 
gerated by the unfounded theory you were taught to believe 
— that its burthens were in proportion to your exports, not 
to your consumption of imported articles. Your pride was 
roused by the assertion that a submission to those laws was 
a state of vassalage and that resistance to them was equal in 
patriotic merit to the opposition our fathers offered to the 
oppressive laws of Great Britain. You were told that this 
opposition might be peaceably, might be constitutionally, 
made ; that you might enjoy all the advantages of the Union 
and bear none of its burthens. Eloquent appeals to your 
passions, to your State pride, to your native courage, to 
your sense of real injury, were used to prepare you for the 
period when the mask which concealed the hideous features 
of disunion should be taken off. It fell, and you were made 
to look with complacency on objects which not long since 
you would have regarded with horror. Look back to the 
arts which have brought you to this state ; look forward to 
the consequences to which it must inevitably lead! Look 
back to what was first told you as an inducement to enter 
into this dangerous course. The great political truth was 
repeated to you that you had the revolutionary right of re- 
sisting all laws that were palpably unconstitutional and in- 
tolerably oppressive. It was added that the right to nullify 
a law rested on the same principle, but that it was a peace- 
able remedy. This character which was given to it made 
you receive with too much confidence the assertions that 
were made of the unconstitutionality of the law and its op- 
pressive effects. Mark, my fellow-citizens, that by the ad- 
mission of your leaders the unconstitutionality must be 
palpable, or it will not justify either resistance or nullifica- 
tion. What is the meaning of the word palpable in the sense 
in which it is here used ? That which is apparent to every- 



252 Andrew Jackson 

one; that which no man of ordinary intellect will fail to 
perceive. Is the unconstitutionality of these laws of that 
description? Let those among your leaders who once ap- 
proved and advocated the principle of protective duties an- 
swer the question ; and let them choose whether they will be 
considered as incapable then of perceiving that which must 
have been apparent to every man of common understanding, 
or as imposing upon your confidence and endeavoring to 
mislead you now. In either case they are unsafe guides in 
the perilous path they urge you to tread. Ponder well on 
this circumstance, and you will know how to appreciate the 
exaggerated language they address to you. They are not 
champions of liberty, emulating the fame of our Revolu- 
tionary fathers, nor are you an oppressed people, contend- 
ing, as they repeat to you, against worse than colonial vas- 
salage. You are free members of a flourishing and happy 
Union, There is no settled design to oppress you. You 
have indeed felt the unequal operation of laws which may 
have been unwisely, not unconstitutionally, passed ; but that 
inequality must necessarily be removed. At the very mo- 
ment when you were madly urged on to the unfortunate 
course you have begun a change in public opinion had com- 
menced. The nearly approaching payment of the public 
debt and the consequent necessity of a diminution of duties 
had already produced a consideral)le reduction, and that, 
too, on some articles of general consumption in your State. 
The importance of this change was underrated, and you 
were authoritatively told that no further alleviation of your 
burthens was to be expected at the very time when the con- 
dition of the country imperiously demanded such a modifi- 
cation of the duties as should reduce them to a just and 
equitable scale. But, as if apprehensive of the effect of this 
change in allaying your discontents, you were precipitated 
into the fearful state in which you now find yourselves. 

I have urged you to look back to the means that were used 
to hurry you on to the position you have now assumed and 
forward to the consequences it will produce. Something 
more is necessary. Contemplate the condition of that coun- 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 253 

try of which you still form an important part. Consider its 
Government, uniting in one bond of common interest and 
general protection so many different States, giving to all 
their inhabitants the proud title of American citizen, pro- 
tecting their commerce, securing their literature and their 
arts, facilitating their intercommunication, defending their 
frontiers, and making their name respected in the remotest 
parts of the earth. Consider the extent of its territory, its 
increasing and happy population, its advance in arts which 
render life agreeable, and the sciences which elevate the 
mind! See education spreading the lights of religion, 
morality, and general information into every cottage in this 
wide extent of our Territories and States. Behold it as the 
asylum where the wretched and the oppressed find a refuge 
and support. Look on this picture of happiness and honor 
and say. We two are citi:;ens of America. Carolina is one 
of these proud States; her arms have defended, her best 
blood has cemented, this happy Union. And then add, if 
you can, without horror and remorse, This happy Union we 
will dissolve; this picture of peace and prosperity we will 
deface; this free intercourse we will interrupt; these fertile 
fields we will deluge with blood; the protection of that 
glorious flag we renounce ; the very name of Americans we 
discard. And for what, mistaken men ? For what do you 
throw away these inestimable blessings? For what would 
you exchange your share in the advantages and honor of 
the Union? For the dream of a separate independence — a 
dream interrupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbors 
and a vile dependence on a foreign power. If your leaders 
could succeed in establishing a separation, what would be 
your situation? Are you united at home? Are you free 
from the apprehension of civil discord, with all its fearful 
consequences? Do our neighboring republics, every day 
suffering some new revolution or contending with some new 
insurrection, do they excite your envy? But the dictates of 
a high duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you can 
not succeed. The laws of the United States must be exe- 
cuted. I have no discretionary power on the subject; my 



254 Andrew Jackson 

duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. Those 
who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execu- 
tion deceived you ; they could not have been deceived them- 
selves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone 
prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such 
opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion. But 
be not deceived by names. Disunion by armed force is 
treason. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If you 
are, on the heads of the instigators of the act be the dread- 
ful consequences; on their heads be the dishonor, but on 
yours may fall the punishment. On your unhappy State 
will inevitably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon 
the Government of your country. It can not accede to the 
mad project of disunion, of which you would be the first 
victims. Its First Magistrate can not, if he would, avoid 
the performance of his duty. The consequence must be 
fearful for you, distressing to your fellow-citizens here and 
to the friends of good government throughout the world. 
Its enemies have beheld our prosperity with a vexation they 
could not conceal ; it was a standing refutation of their slav- 
ish doctrines, and they will point to our discord with the 
triumph of malignant joy. It is yet in your power to dis- 
appoint them. There is yet time to show that the descend- 
ants of the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the Rutledges, and of 
the thousand other names which adorn the pages of your 
Revolutionary history will not abandon that Union to sup- 
port which so many of them fought and bled and died. I 
adjure you, as you honor their memory, as you love the 
cause of freedom, to which they dedicated their lives, as you 
prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, 
and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from 
the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its con- 
vention ; bid its members to reassemble and promulgate the 
decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which 
alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity, and honor. Tell 
them that compared to disunion all other evils are light, 
because that brings with it an accumulation of all. Declare 
that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled 



Anti-Nullification Proclamation 255 

banner of your country shall float over you; that you will 
not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned 
while you live, as the authors of the first attack on the Con- 
stitution of your country. Its destroyers you can not be. 
You may disturb its peace, you may interrupt the course of 
its prosperity, you may cloud its reputation for stability; 
but its tranquillity will be restored, its prosperity will re- 
turn, and the stain upon its national character will be trans- 
ferred and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those 
who caused the disorder. 

Fellow-citizens of the United States, the threat of unhal- 
lowed disunion, the names of those once respected by whom 
it is uttered, the array of military force to support it, denote 
the approach of a crisis in our affairs on which the continu- 
ance of our unexampled prosperity, our political existence, 
and perhaps that of all free governments may depend. The 
conjuncture demanded a free, a full, and explicit enuncia- 
tion, not only of my intentions, but of my principles of 
action ; and as the claim was asserted of a right by a State 
to annul the laws of the Union, and even to secede from it 
at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in relation to 
the origin and form of our Government and the construc- 
tion I give to the instrument by which it was created seemed 
to be proper. Having the fullest confidence in the justness 
of the legal and constitutional opinion of my duties which 
has been expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your 
undivided support in my determination to execute the laws, 
to preserve the Union by all constitutional means, to arrest, 
if possible, by moderate and firm measures the necessity of 
a recourse to force ; and if it be the will of Heaven that the 
recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of 
a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not 
called down by any offensive act on the part of the United 
States. 

Fellow-citizens, the momentous case is before you. On 
your undivided support of your Government depends the 
decision of the great question it involves — whether your 
sacred Union will be preserved and the blessing it secures 



I 

256 Andrew Jackson 

to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt 
that the unanimity with which that decision will be ex- 
pressed will be such as to inspire new confidence in repub- 
lican institutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom, and 
the courage which it will bring to their defense will transmit 
them unimpaired and invigorated to our children. 

May the Great Ruler of Nations grant that the signal 
blessings with which He has favored ours may not, by the 
madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and 
lost; and may His wise providence bring those who have 
produced this crisis to see the folly before they feel the 
misery of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration for 
that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate His designs, 
He has chosen as the only means of attaining the high des- 
tinies to which we may reasonably aspire. 

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United 
States to be hereunto affixed, having signed the 
same with my hand. 
[seal.] Done at the city of Washington, this loth day 
of December, A. D. 1832, and of the Independ- 
ence of the United States the fifty-seventh. 

Andrew Jackson. 
By the President: 

Edw. Livingston, 

Secretary of State. 



Second Inaugural Address.* 

(March 4, 1833.) 

Fellow-Citizens: The will of the American people, ex- 
pressed through their unsolicited suffrages, calls me before 
you to pass through the solemnities preparatory to taking 
upon myself the duties of President of the United States 
for another term. For their approbation of my public con- 
duct through a period which has not been without its diffi- 
culties, and for this renewed expression of their confidence 
in my good intentions, I am at a loss for terms adequate to 
the expression of my gratitude. It shall be displayed to the 
extent of my humble abilities in continued efforts so to ad- 
minister the Government as to preserve their liberty and 
promote their happiness. 

So many events have occurred within the last four years 
which have necessarily called forth — sometimes under cir- 
cumstances the most delicate and painful — my views of the 
principles and policy which ought to be pursued by the Gen- 
eral Government that I need on this occasion but allude to a 
few leading considerations connected with some of them. 

The foreign policy adopted by our Government soon after 

* "Jackson held," remarks his biographer, Sumner {Andrew Jack- 
son, p. 277), "that his reelection was a triumphant vindication of him 
in all the points in which he had been engaged in controversy with 
anybody, and a kind of charter to him, as representative, or rather 
tribune, of the people, to go on and govern on his own judgment over 
and against everybody, including Congress." And again: "Jackson's 
modes of action in his second term were those of personal government. 
He proceeded avowedly on his own initiative and responsibility, to 
experiment, as Napoleon did, with great public institutions and in- 
terests." (Id., p. 279.) 

The Second Inaugural Address has a strong personal tone: confident, 
aggressive, almost imperious: qualities characteristic of Jackson and 
his entire administration. 

*S7 



25 S Andrew Jackson ' 

the formation of our present Constitution, an3 very gen- 
erally pursued by successive Administrations, has been 
crowned with almost complete success, and has elevated our 
character among the nations of the earth. To do justice to 
all and to submit to wrong from none has been during my 
Administration its governing maxim, and so happy have 
been its results that we are not only at peace with all the 
world, but have few causes of controversy, and those of 
minor importance, remaining unadjusted. 

In the domestic policy of this Government there are two 
objects which especially deserve the attention of the people 
and their representatives, and w^hich have been and will con- 
tinue to be the subjects of my increasing solicitude. They 
are the preservation of the rights of the several States and 
the integrity of the Union. 

These great objects are necessarily connected, and can 
only be attained by an enlightened exercise of the powers 
of each within its appropriate sphere in conformity with 
the public will constitutionally expressed. To this end it 
becomes the duty of all to yield a ready and patriotic submis- 
sion to the laws constitutionally enacted, and thereby pro- 
mote and strengthen a proper confidence in those institu- 
tions of the several States and of the United States which 
the people themselves have ordained for their own govern- 
ment. 

^My experience in public concerns and the observation of 
a life somewhat advanced confirm the opinions long since 
imbibed by me, that the destruction of our State govern- 
ments or the annihilation of their control over the local con- 
cerns of the people would lead directly to revolution and 
anarchy, and finally to despotism and military domination. 
In proportion, therefore, as the General Government en- 
croaches upon the rights of the States, in the same propor- 
tion does it impair its own power and detract from its 
ability to fulfill the purposes of its creation. Solemnly im- 
pressed with these considerations, my countrymen will ever 
find me ready to exercise my constitutional powers in ar- 
resting measures which may directly or indirectly encroach 



Second Inaugural Address * 259 

upon the rights of the States or tend to consolidate all po- 
litical power in the General Governmen^; But of equal, and, 
indeed, of incalculable, importance is the union of these 
States, and the sacred duty of all to contribute to its preser- 
vation by a liberal support of the General Government in 
the exercise of its just powers. You have been wisely ad- 
monished to " accustom yourselves to think and speak of the 
Union as of the palladium of your political safety and pros- 
perity, watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, 
discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion 
that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly 
frowning upon the first dawning of any attempt to alienate 
any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the 
sacred ties which now link together the various parts." 
Without union our independence and liberty would never 
have been achieved ; without union they never can be main- 
tained. Divided into twenty-four, or even a smaller num- 
ber, of separate communities, we shall see our internal trade 
burdened with numberless restraints and exactions; com- 
munication between distant points and sections obstructed 
or cut off; our sons made soldiers to deluge with blood 
the fields they now till in peace; the mass of our people 
borne down and impoverished by taxes to support armies 
and navies, and military leaders at the head of their victo- 
rious legions becoming our lawgivers and judges. The loss 
of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and 
happiness, must inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union. 
In supporting it, therefore, we support all that is dear to the 
freeman and the philanthropist. 

The time at which I stand before you is full of interest. 
The eyes of all nations are fixed on our Republic. The 
event of the existing crisis will be decisive in the opinion 
of mankind of the practicability of our federal system of 
government. Great is the stake placed in our hands; great 
is the responsibility which must rest upon the people of the 
United States. Let us realize the importance of the atti- 
tude in which we stand before the world. Let us exercise 
forbearance and firmness. Let us extricate our country 



26o Andrew Jackson 

from the dangers which surround it and learn wisdom from 
the lessons they inculcate. 

Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations, 
and under the obligation of that solemn oath which I am 
about to take, I shall continue to exert all my faculties to 
maintain the just powers of the Constitution and to trans- 
mit unimpaired to posterity the blessings of our Federal 
Union. At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate by 
my official acts the necessity of exercising by the General 
Government those powers only that are clearly delegated; 
to encourage simplicity and economy in the expenditures of 
the Government; to raise no more money from the people 
than may be requisite for these objects, and in a manner that 
will best promote the interests of all classjs of the com- 
munity and of all portions of the Union. [" Constantly bear- 
ing in mind that in entering into society " individuals must 
give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest," it will be 
my desire so to discharge my duties as to foster with our 
brethren in all parts of the country a spirit of liberal con- 
cession and compromise, and, by reconciling our fellow- 
citizens to those partial sacrifices which they must unavoid- 
ably make for the preservation of a greater good, to 
recommend our invaluable Government and Union to the 
confidence and affections of the American people. | .^— 

Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty J^^^,^^. 
Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in . 
His hands from the infancy of our Republic to the present 
day, that He will so overrule all my intentions and actions ?}y^y^ '' 
and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be le^' 
preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a 
united and happy people. 




Removal of the Public Deposits.* 

(Read to the Cabinet September i8, 1833.) 

Having carefully and anxiously considered all the facts 
and arguments which have been submitted to him relative 
to a removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the 
United States, the President deems it his duty to communi- 
cate in this manner to his Cabinet the final conclusions of 
his own mind and the reasons on which they are founded, 
in order to put them in durable form and to prevent mis- 
conceptions. 

The President's convictions of the dangerous tendencies 
of the Bank of the United States, since signally illustrated 
by its own acts, were so overpowering when he entered on 
the duties of Chief Magistrate that he felt it his duty, not- 

* This paper was prepared by Roger B. Taney, Jackson's Attorney- 
General {Tyler's Taney, p. 204), afterwards appointed by him Chief 
Justice of the United States. 

No other official act of Jackson's produced greater commotion and 
alarm. Friends of the Bank declared that the order would ruin the 
country. Read in connection with the history of the times, this order 
is seen to be a state paper of vast importance. With the execution of 
this order some writers begin the changes which culminated in the 
"Panic of 1837." 

Benton records that on reading this "paper" in the Globe, "I felt 
an emotion of the moral sublime at beholding such an instance of civic 
heroism. Here was a president, not bred up in the political pro- 
fession, taking a great step upon his own responsibility from which 
many of his advisers shrunk ; and magnanimously, in the act itself, re- 
leasing all from the peril that he encountered, and boldly taking the 
whole upon himself. I say peril ; for if the Bank should conquer, there 
was an end to the political prospects of every pubHc man concurring in 
the removal. He believed the act to be necessary; and believing that, 
he did the act — leaving the consequences to God and the country. I 
felt that a great blow had been struck, and that a great contest must 
come on, which could only be crowned with success by acting up to the 
spirit with which it had commenced." Thirty Years' View, I., p. 378- 

261 



2^2 Andrew Jackson 

withstanding the objections of the friends by whom he was 
surrounded, to avail himself of the first occasion to call the 
attention of Congress and the people to the question of its 
recharter. The opinions expressed in his annual message 
of December, 1829, were reiterated in those of December, 
1830 and 1 83 1, and in that of 1830 he threw out for con- 
sideration some suggestions in relation to a substitute. At 
the session of 1831-32 an act was passed by a majority of 
both Houses of Congress rechartering the present bank, 
upon which the President felt it his duty to put his con- 
stitutional veto. In his message returning that act he re- 
peated and enlarged upon the principles and views briefly 
asserted in his annual message, declaring the bank to be, in 
his opinion, both inexpedient and unconstitutional, and an- 
nouncing to his countrymen very unequivocally his firm de- 
termination never to sanction by his approval the continu- 
ance of that institution or the establishment of any other 
upon similar principles. 

There are strong reasons for believing that the motive 
of the bank in asking for a recharter at that session of Con- 
gress was to make it a leading question in the election of a 
President of the United States the ensuing November, and 
all steps deemed necessary were taken to procure from the 
people a reversal of the President's decision. 

Although the charter was approaching its termination, 
and the bank was aware that it was the intention of the 
Government to use the public deposit as fast as it has ac- 
crued in the payment of the public debt, yet did it extend its 
loans from January, 1831, to May, 1832, from $42,402,- 
304.24 to $70,428,070.72 being an increase of $28,025,- 
766.48 in sixteen months. It is confidently believed that 
the leading object of this immense extension of its loans 
was to bring as large a portion of the people as possible 
under its power and influence, and it has been disclosed that 
some of the largest sums were granted on very unusual 
terms to the conductors of the public press. In some of 
these cases the motive was made manifest by the nominal 
or insufficient security taken for the loans, by the large 



Removal of the Public Deposits 263 

amounts discounted, by the extraordinary time allowed for 
payment, and especially by the subsequent conduct of those 
receiving the accommodations. 

Having taken these preliminary steps to obtain control 
over public opinion, the bank came into Congress and asked 
a new charter. The object avowed by many of the advo- 
cates of the bank was to put the President to the test, that 
the country might know his final determination relative to 
the bank prior to the ensuing election. Many documents 
and articles were printed and circulated at the expense of 
the bank to bring the people to a favorable decision upon its 
pretensions. Those whom the bank appears to have made 
its debtors for the special occasion were warned of the ruin 
which awaited them should the President be sustained, and 
attempts were made to alarm the whole people by painting 
the depression in the price of property and produce and the 
general loss, inconvenience, and distress which it was rep- 
resented would immediately follow the reelection of the 
President in opposition to the bank. 

Can it now be said that the question of a recharter of 
the bank was not decided at the election which ensued? 
Had the veto been equivocal, or had it not covered the whole 
ground; if it had merely taken exceptions to the details of 
the bill or to the time of its passage; if it had not met the 
whole ground of constitutionality and expediency, then 
there might have been some plausibility for the allegation 
that the question was not decided by the people. It was to 
compel the President to take his stand that the question was 
brought forward at that particular time. He met the chal- 
lenge, willingly took the position into which his adversaries 
sought to force him, and frankly declared his unalterable 
opposition to the bank as being both unconstitutional and 
inexpedient. On that ground the case was argued to the 
people; and now that the people have sustained the Presi- 
dent, notwithstanding the array of influence and power 
which was brought to bear upon him, it is too late, he con- 
fidently thinks, to say that the question has not been de- 
cided. Whatever may be the opinions of others, the Pres- 



264 Andrew Jackson 

ident considers his reelection as a decision of the people 
against the bank. In the concluding paragraph of his veto 
message he said: 

I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained 
by my fellow-citizens, I shall be grateful and happy; if not, 
I shall find in the motives which impel me ample grounds 
for contentment and peace. 

He was sustained by a just people, and he desires to 
evince his gratitude by carrying into effect their decision so 
far as it depends upon him. 

Of all the substitutes for the present bank which have 
been suggested, none seems to have united any considerable 
portion of the public in its favor. Most of them are liable 
to the same constitutional objections for which the present 
bank has been condemned, and perhaps to all there are 
strong objections on the score of expediency. In ridding 
the country of an irresponsible power which has attempted 
to control the Government, care must be taken not to unite 
the same power with the executive branch. To give a Pres- 
ident the control over the currency and the power over in- 
dividuals now possessed by the Bank of the United States, 
even with the material difference that he is responsible to 
the people, would be as objectionable and as dangerous as 
to leave it as it is. Neither one nor the other is necessary, 
and therefore ought not to be resorted to. 

On the whole, the President considers it as conclusively 
settled that the charter of the Bank of the United States will 
not be renewed, and he has no reasonable ground to believe 
that any substitute will be established. Being bound to reg- 
ulate his course by the laws as they exist, and not to an- 
ticipate the interference of the legislative power for the 
purpose of framing new systems, it is proper for him season- 
ably to consider the means by which the services rendered 
by the Bank of the United States are to be performed after 
its charter shall expire. 

The existing laws declare that — 



Removal of the Public Deposits 265 

The deposits of the money of the United States in places 
in which the said bank and branches thereof may be estab- 
lished shall be made in said bank or branches thereof unless 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall at any time otherwise 
order and direct, in which case the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury shall immediately lay before Congress, if in session, 
and, if not, immediately after the commencement of the 
next session, the reasons of such order or direction. 

The power of the Secretary of the Treasury over the 
deposits is unqualified. The provision that he shall report 
his reasons to Congress is no limitation. Had it not been 
inserted he would have been responsible to Congress had 
he made a removal for any other than good reasons, and his 
responsibility now ceases upon the rendition of sufficient 
ones to Congress. The only object of the provision is to 
make his reasons accessible to Congress and enable that 
body the more readily to judge of their soundness and pur- 
ity, and thereupon to make such further provision by law 
as the legislative power may think proper in relation to the 
deposit of the public money. Those reasons may be very 
diversified. It was asserted by the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, without contradiction, as early as 1817, that he had 
power " to control the proceedings " of the Bank of the 
United States at any moment " by changing the deposits to 
the State banks " should it pursue an illiberal course toward 
those institutions ; that " the Secretary of the Treasury will 
always be disposed to support the credit of the State banks, 
and will invariably direct transfers from the deposits of the 
public money in aid of their legitimate exertions to main- 
tain their credit;" and he asserted a right to employ the 
State banks when the Bank of the United States should re- 
fuse to receive on deposit the notes of such State banks as 
the public interest required should be received in payment 
of the public dues. In several instances he did transfer the 
public deposits to State banks in the immediate vicinity of 
branches, for reasons connected only with the safety of 
those banks, the public convenience, and the interests of the 
Treasury. 



266 Andrew Jackson 

If it was lawful for Mr. Crawford, the Secretary of the 
Treasury at that time, to act on these principles, it will be 
difficult to discover any sound reason against the application 
of similar principles in still stronger cases. And it is a 
matter of surprise that a power which in the infancy of the 
bank was freely asserted as one of the ordinary and familiar 
duties of the Secretary of the Treasury should now be 
gravely questioned, and attempts made to excite and alarm 
the public mind as if some new and unheard-of power was 
about to be usurped by the executive branch of the Govern- 
ment. 

It is but a little more than two and a half years to the 
termination of the charter of the present bank. It is con- 
sidered as the decision of the country that it shall then cease 
to exist, and no man, the President believes, has reasonable 
ground for expectation that any other Bank of the United 
States will be created by Congress. 

To the Treasury Department is intrusted the safe-keep- 
ing and faithful application of the public moneys. A plan 
of collection different from the present must therefore be 
introduced and put in complete operation before the disso- 
lution of the present bank. When shall it be commenced? 
Shall no step be taken in this essential concern until the 
charter expires and the Treasury finds itself without an 
agent, its accounts in confusion, with no depository for its 
funds, and the whole business of the Government deranged, 
or shall it be delayed until six months, or a year, or two 
years before the expiration of the charter? It is obvious 
that any new system which may be substituted in the place 
of the Bank of the United States could not be suddenly car- 
ried into effect on the termination of its existence without 
serious inconvenience to the Government and the people. 
Its vast amount of notes are then to be redeemed and with- 
drawn from circulation and its immense debt collected. 
These operations must be gradual, otherwise much suffering 
and distress will be brought upon the community. 

It ought to be not a work of months only, but of years, 
and tlie President thinks it can not, with due attention to 



Removal of the Public Deposits 267 

the interests of the people, be longer postponed. It is safer 
to begin it too soon than to delay it too long. 

It is for the wisdom of Congress to decide upon the best 
substitute to be adopted in the place of the Bank of the 
United States, and the President would have felt himself 
relieved from a heavy and painful responsibility if in the 
charter to the bank Congress had reserved to itself the 
power of directing at its pleasure the public money to be 
elsewhere deposited, and had not devolved that power ex- 
clusively on one of the Executive Departments. It is use- 
less now to inquire why this high and important power was 
surrendered by those who are peculiarly and appropriately 
the guardians of the public money. Perhaps it was an 
oversight. But as the President presumes that the charter 
to the bank is to be considered as a contract on the part of 
the Government, it is not now in the power of Congress to 
disregard its stipulations ; and by the terms of that contract 
the public money is to be deposited in the bank during the 
continuance of its charter unless the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury shall otherwise direct. Unless, therefore, the Secretary 
of the Treasury first acts, Congress have no power over the 
subject, for they can not add a new clause to the charter or 
strike one out of it without the consent of the bank, and 
consequently the public money must remain in that institu- 
tion to the last hour of its existence unless the Secretary of 
the Treasury shall remove it at an earlier day. The respon- 
sibility is thus thrown upon the executive branch of the 
Government of deciding how long before the expiration of 
the charter the public interest will require the deposits to be 
placed elsewhere ; and although according to the frame and 
principle of our Government this decision would seem more 
properly to belong to the legislative power, yet as the law 
has imposed it upon the executive department the duty 
ought to be faithfully and firmly met, and the decision made 
and executed upon the best lights that can be obtained and 
the best judgment that can be formed. It would ill become 
the executive branch of the Government to shrink from any 
duty which the law imposes on it, to fix upon others the 



268 Andrew Jackson 

responsibility which justly belongs to itself. And while 
the President anxiously wishes to abstain from the exercise 
of doubtful powers and to avoid all interference with the 
rights and duties of others, he must yet with unshaken con- 
stancy discharge his own obligations, and can not allow 
himself to turn aside in order to avoid any responsibility 
which the high trust with which he has been honored re- 
quires him to encounter; and it being the duty of one of 
the Executive Departments to decide in the first instance, 
subject to the future action of the legislative power, 
whether the public deposits shall remain in the Bank of the 
United States until the end of its existence or be withdrawn 
some time before, the President has felt himself bound to 
examine the question carefully and deliberately in order to 
make up his judgment on the subject, and in his opinion 
the near approach of the termination of the charter and the 
public considerations heretofore mentioned are of them- 
selves amply sufficient to justify the removal of the deposits, 
without reference to the conduct of the bank or their safety 
in its keeping. 

But in the conduct of the bank may be found other rea- 
sons, very imperative in their character, and which require 
prompt action. Developments have been made from time to 
time of its faithlessness as a public agent, its misapplication 
of public funds, its interference in elections, its efforts by 
the machinery of committees to deprive the Government di- 
rectors of a full knowledge of its concerns, and, above all, 
its flagrant misconduct as recently and unexpectedly dis- 
closed in placing all the funds of the bank, including the 
money of the Government, at the disposition of the presi- 
dent of the bank as means of operating upon public opinion 
and procuring a new charter, without requiring him to ren- 
der a voucher for their disbursement. A brief recapitula- 
tion of the facts which justify these charges, and which 
have come to the knowledge of the public and the President, 
will, he thinks, remove every reasonable doubt as to the 
course which it is now the duty of the President to pursue. 

We have seen that in sixteen months ending in May, 



Removal of the Public Deposits 269 

1832, the bank had extended its loans more than $28,- 
000,000, although it knew the Government intended to ap- 
propriate most of its large deposit during that year in pay- 
ment of the public debt. It was in May, 1832, that its loans 
arrived at the maximum, and in the preceding March so 
sensible was the bank that it would not be able to pay over 
the public deposit when it would be required by the Gov- 
ernment that it commenced a secret negotiation, without the 
approbation or knowledge of the Government, with the 
agents for about $2,700,000 of the 3 per cent stocks held in 
Holland, with a view of inducing them not to come forward 
for payment for one or more years after notice should be 
given by the Treasury Department. This arrangement 
would have enabled the bank to keep and use during that 
time the public money set apart for the payment of these 
stocks. 

After this negotiation had commenced, the Secretary of 
the Treasury informed the bank that it was his intention to 
pay off one-half of the 3 percents on the ist of the succeed- 
ing July, which amounted to about $6,500,000. The presi- 
dent of the bank, although the committee of investigation 
was then looking into its affairs at Philadelphia, came im- 
mediately to Washington, and upon representing that the 
bank was desirous of accommodating the importing mer- 
chants at New York (which it failed to do) and undertak- 
ing to pay the interest itself, procured the consent of the 
Secretary, after consultation with the President, to postpone 
the payment until the succeeding ist of October. 

Conscious that at the end of that quarter the bank would 
not be able to pay over the deposits, and that further indul- 
gence was not to be expected of the Government, an agent 
was dispatched to England secretly to negotiate with the 
holders of the public debt in Europe and induce them by the 
offer of an equal or higher interest than that paid by the 
Government to hold back their claims for one year, during 
which the bank expected thus to retain the use of $5,000,000 
of the public money, which the Government should set apart 
for the payment of that debt. The agent made an arrange- 



270 Andrew Jackson 

ment on terms, in part, which were in direct violation of the 
charter of the bank, and when some incidents connected 
with this secret negotiation accidentally came to the knowl- 
edge of the public and the Government, then, and not be- 
fore, so much of it as was palpably in violation of the 
charter was disavowed. A modification of the rest was at- 
tempted with the view of getting the certificates without 
payment of the money, and thus absolving the Government 
from its liability to the holders. In this scheme the bank 
was partially successful, but to this day the certificates of a 
portion of these stocks have not been paid and the bank re- 
tains the use of the money. 

This effort to thwart the Government in the payment of 
the public debt that it might retain the public money to be 
used for their private interests, palliated by pretenses no- 
toriously unfounded and insincere, would have justified the 
instant withdrawal of the public deposits. The negotiation 
itself rendered doubtful the ability of the bank to meet the 
demands of the Treasury, and the misrepresentations by 
which it was attempted to be justified proved that no reli- 
ance could be placed upon its allegations. 

If the question of a removal of the deposits presented it- 
self to the Executive in the same attitude that it appeared 
before the House of Representatives at their last session, 
their resolution in relation to the safety of the deposits 
would be entitled to more weight, although the decision of 
the question of removal has been confided by law to another 
department of the Government. But the question now oc- 
curs attended by other circumstances and new disclosures of 
the most serious import. It is true that in the message of 
the President which produced this inquiry and resolution on 
the part of the House of Representatives it was his object 
to obtain the aid of that body in making a thorough exam- 
ination into the conduct and condition of the bank and its 
branches in order to enable the executive department to de- 
cide whether the public money was longer safe in its hands. 
The limited power of the Secretary of the Treasury over 
the subject disabled him from making the investigation as 



I 



Removal of the Public Deposits 271 

fully and satisfactorily as it could be done by a committee 
of the House of Representatives, and hence the President 
desired the assistance of Congress to obtain for the Treas- 
ury Department a full knowledge of all the facts which were 
necessary to guide his judgment. But it was not his pur- 
pose, as the language of his message will show, to ask the 
representatives of the people to assume a responsibility 
which did not belong to them and relieve the executive 
branch of the Government from the duty which the law 
had imposed upon it. It is due to the President that his 
object in that proceeding should be distinctly understood, 
and that he should acquit himself of all suspicion of seek- 
ing to escape from the performance of his own duties or of 
desiring to interpose another body between himself and the 
people in order to avoid a measure which he is called upon 
to meet. But although as an act of justice to himself he 
disclaims any design of soliciting the opinion of the House 
of Representatives in relation to his own duties in order 
to shelter himself from responsibility under the sanction of 
their counsel, yet he is at all times ready to listen to the sug- 
gestions of the representatives of the people, whether given 
voluntarily or upon solicitation, and to consider them with 
the profound respect to which all will admit that they are 
justly entitled. Whatever may be the consequences, how- 
ever, to himself, he must finally form his own judgment 
where the Constitution and the law make it his duty to de- 
cide, and must act accordingly; and he is bound to suppose 
that such a course on his part will never be regarded by 
that elevated body as a mark of disrespect to itself, but that 
they will, on the contrary, esteem it the strongest evidence 
he can give of his fixed resolution conscientiously to dis- 
charge his duty to them and the country. 

A new state of things has, however, arisen since the close 
of the last session of Congress, and evidence has since been 
laid before the President which he is persuaded would have 
led the House of Representatives to a different conclusion 
if it had come to their knowledge. The fact that the bank 
controls, and in some cases substantially owns, and by its 



2/2 Andrew Jackson 

money supports some of the leading presses of the country 
is now more clearly established. Editors to whom it loaned 
extravagant sums in 183 1 and 1832, on unusual time and 
nominal security, have since turned out to be insolvent, and 
to others apparently in no better condition accommodations 
still more extravagant, on terms more unusual, and some 
without any security, have also been heedlessly granted. 

The allegation which has so often circulated through 
these channels that the Treasury was bankrupt and the bank 
was sustaining it, when for many years there has not been 
less, on an average, than six millions of public money in that 
institution, might be passed over as a harmless misrepre- 
sentation ; but when it is attempted by substantial acts to 
impair the credit of the Government and tarnish the honor 
of the country, such charges require more serious attention. 
With six millions of public money in its vaults, after having 
had the use of from five to twelve millions for nine years 
without interest, it became the purchaser of a bill drawn by 
our Government on that of France for about $900,000, be- 
ing the first installment of the French indemnity. The pur- 
chase money was left in the use of the bank, being simply 
added to the Treasury deposit. The bank sold the bill in 
England, and the holder sent it to France for collection, and 
arrangements not having been made by the French Gov- 
ernment for its payment, it was taken up by the agents of 
the bank in Paris with the funds of the bank in their hands. 
Under these circumstances it has through its organs openly 
assailed the credit of the Government, and has actually made 
and persists in a demand of 15 per cent, or $158,842.77, as 
damages, when no damage, or none beyond some trifling 
expense, has in fact been sustained, and when the bank had 
in its own possession on deposit several millions of the pub- 
lic money which it was then using for its own profit. Is a 
fiscal agent of the Government which thus seeks to enrich 
itself at the expense of the public worthy of further trust? 

There are other important facts not in the contemplation 
of the House of Representatives or not known to the mem- 
bers at the time they voted for the resolution. 



Removal of the Public Deposits 273 

Although the charter and the rules of the bank both de- 
clare that " not less than seven directors " shall be necessary 
to the transaction of business, yet the most important busi- 
ness, even that of granting discounts to any extent, is in- 
trusted to a committee of five members, who do not report 
to the board. 

To cut off all means of communication with the Govern- 
ment in relation to its most important acts at the commence- 
ment of the present year, not one of the Government direc- 
tors was placed on any one committee ; and although since, 
by an unusual remodeling of those bodies, some of those 
directors have been placed on some of the committees, they 
are yet entirely excluded from the committee of exchange, 
through which the greatest and most objectionable loans 
have been made. 

When the Government directors made an effort to bring 
back the business of the bank to the board in obedience to 
the charter and the existing regulations, the board not only 
overruled their attempt, but altered the rule so as to make 
it conform to the practice, in direct violation of one of the 
most important provisions of the charter which gave them 
existence. 

It has long been known that the president of the bank, 
by his single will, originates and executes many of the most 
important measures connected with the management and 
credit of the bank, and that the committee as well as the 
board of directors are left in entire ignorance of many acts 
done and correspondence carried on in their names, and ap- 
parently under their authority. The fact has been recently 
disclosed that an unlimited discretion has been and is now 
vested in the president of the bank to expend its funds in 
payment for preparing and circulating articles and pur- 
chasing pamphlets and newspapers, calculated by their con- 
tents to operate on elections and secure a renewal of its 
charter. It appears from the official report of the public di- 
rectors that on the 30th November, 1830, the president sub- 
mitted to the board an article published in the American 
Quarterly Review containing favorable notices of the bank. 



2/4 Andrew Jackson 

and suggested the expediency of giving it a wider circu- 
lation at the expense of the bank; whereupon the board 
passed the following resolution, viz. : 

Resolved, That the president be authorized to take such 
measures in regard to the circulation of the contents of the 
said article, either in whole or in part, as he may deem most 
for the interest of the bank. 

By an entry in the minutes of the bank dated March ii, 
1 83 1, it appears that the president had not only caused a 
large edition of that article to be issued, but had also, before 
the resolution of 30th November was adopted, procured to 
be printed and widely circulated numerous copies of the re- 
ports of General Smith and Mr. McDuffie in favor of the 
bank ; and on that day he suggested the expediency of ex- 
tending his power to the printing of other articles which 
might subserve the purposes of the institution, whereupon 
the following resolution was adopted, viz, : 

Resolved, That the president is hereby authorized to 
cause to be prepared and circulated such documents and pa- 
pers as may communicate to the people information in re- 
gard to the nature and operations of the bank. 

The expenditures purporting to have been made under 
authority of these resolutions during the years 1831 and 
1832 were about 80,000. For a portion of these expendi- 
tures vouchers were rendered, from which it appears that 
they were incurred in the purchase of some hundred thou- 
sand copies of newspapers, reports and speeches made in 
Congress, reviews of the veto message and reviews of 
speeches against the bank, etc. For another large portion 
no vouchers whatever were rendered, but the various sums 
were paid on orders of the president of the bank, making 
reference to the resolution of the nth of March, 1831. 

On ascertaining these facts and perceiving that expendi- 
tures of a similar character were still continued, the Gov- 
ernment directors a few weeks ago offered a resolution in 



Removal of the Public Deposits ^75 

the board calling for a specific account of these expendi- 
tures, showing the objects to which they had been applied 
and the persons to whom the money had been paid. This 
reasonable proposition was voted down. 

They also offered a resolution rescinding the resolutions 
of November, 1830, and March, 1831. This also was re- 
jected. 

Not content with thus refusing to recall the obnoxious 
power or even to require such an account of the expenditure 
as would show whether the money of the bank had in fact 
been applied to the objects contemplated by these resolu- 
tions, as obnoxious as they were, the board renewed the 
power already conferred, and even enjoined renewed at- 
tention to its exercise by adopting the following in lieu of 
the propositions submitted by the Government directors, 
viz. : 

Resolved, That the board have confidence in the wisdom 
and integrity of the president and in the propriety of the 
resolutions of 30th November, 1830, and nth March, 1831, 
and entertain a full conviction of the necessity of a renewed 
attention to the object of those resolutions, and that the 
president be authorized and requested to continue his exer- 
tions for the promotion of said object. 

Taken in connection with the nature of the expenditures 
heretofore made, as recently disclosed, which the board not 
only tolerate, but approve, this resolution puts the funds of 
the bank at the disposition of the president for the purpose 
of employing the whole press of the country in the service 
of the bank, to hire writers and newspapers, and to pay out 
such sums as he pleases to what person and for what serv- 
ices he pleases without the responsibility of rendering any 
specific account. The bank is thus converted into a vast 
electioneering engine, with means to embroil the country in 
deadly feuds, and, under cover of expenditures in them- 
selves improper, extend its corruption through all the ram- 
ifications of society. 

Some of the items for which accounts have been ren- 



276 Andrew Jackson 

dered show the construction which has been given to the 
resolutions and the way in which the power it confers has 
been exerted. The money has not been expended merely 
in the publication and distribution of speeches, reports of 
committees, or articles written for the purpose of showing 
the constitutionality or usefulness of the bank, but publi- 
cations have been prepared and extensively circulated con- 
taining the grossest invectives against the officers of the 
Government, and the money which belongs to the stock- 
holders and to the public has been freely applied in efforts 
to degrade in public estimation those who were supposed to 
be instrumental in resisting the wishes of this grasping and 
dangerous institution. As the president of the bank has not 
been required to settle his accounts, no one but himself 
knows how much more than the sum already mentioned may 
have been squandered, and for which a credit may hereafter 
be claimed in his account under this most extraordinary res- 
olution. With these facts before us can we be surprised at 
the torrent of abuse incessantly poured out against all who 
are supposed to stand in the way of the cupidity or ambi- 
tion of the Bank of the United States? Can we be sur- 
prised at sudden and unexpected changes of opinion in favor 
of an institution which has millions to lavish and avows its 
determination not to spare its means when they are neces- 
sary to accomplish its purposes? The refusal to render an 
account of the manner in which a part of the money ex- 
pended has been applied gives just cause for the suspicion 
that it has been used for purposes which it is not deemed 
prudent to expose to the eyes of an intelligent and virtuous 
people. Those who act justly do not shun the light, nor 
do they refuse explanations when the propriety of their con- 
duct is brought into question. 

With these facts before him in an official report from the 
Government directors, the President would feel that he was 
not only responsible for all the abuses and corruptions the 
bank has committed or may commit, but almost an accom- 
plice in a conspiracy against that Government which he has 
sworn honestly to administer, if he did not take every step 



Removal of the Public Deposits '2-']^ 

within his constitutional and legal power likely to be effi- 
cient in putting an end to these enormities. If it be possible 
within the scope of human afifairs to find a reason for re- 
moving the Government deposits and leaving the bank to 
its own resource for the means of effecting its criminal de- 
signs, we have it here. Was it expected when the moneys 
of the United States were directed to be placed in that bank 
that they would be put under the control of one man em- 
powered to spend millions without rendering a voucher or 
specifying the object ? Can they be considered safe with the 
evidence before us that tens of thousands have been spent 
for highly improper, if not corrupt, purposes, and that the 
same motive may lead to the expenditure of hundreds of 
thousands, and even millions, more? And can we justify 
ourselves to the people by longer lending to it the money 
and power of the Government to be employed for such pur- 
poses ? 

It has been alleged by some as an objection to the removal 
of the deposits that the bank has the power, and in that 
event will have the disposition, to destroy the State banks 
employed by the Government, and bring distress upon the 
country. It has been the fortune of the President to en- 
counter dangers which were represented as equally alarm- 
ing, and he has seen them vanish before resolution and 
energy. Pictures equally appalling were paraded before 
him when this bank came to demand a new charter. But 
what was the result ? Has the country been ruined, or even 
distressed? Was it ever more prosperous than since that 
act? The President verily believes the bank has not the 
power to produce the calamities its friends threaten. The 
funds of the Government will not be annihilated by being 
transferred. They will immediately be issued for the bene- 
fit of trade, and if the Bank of the United States curtails its 
loans the State banks, strengthened by the public de- 
posits, will extend theirs. What comes in through one bank 
will go out through others, and the equilibrium will be pre- 
served. Should the bank, for the mere purpose of produc- 
ing distress, press its debtors more heavily than some of 



2/8 Andrew Jackson 

them can bear, the consequences will recoil upon itself, and 
in the attempts to embarrass the country it will only bring 
loss and ruin upon the holders of its own stock. But if the 
President believed the bank possessed all the power which 
has been attributed to it, his determination would only be 
rendered the more inflexible. If, indeed, this corporation 
now holds in its hands the happiness and prosperity of the 
American people, it is high time to take the alarm. If the 
despotism be already upon us and our only safety is in the 
mercy of the despot, recent developments in relation to his 
designs and the means he employs show how necessary it is 
to shake it off. The struggle can never come with less dis- 
tress to the people or under more favorable auspices than 
at the present moment. 

All doubt as to the willingness of the State banks to un- 
dertake the service of the Government to the same extent 
and on the same terms as it is now performed by the Bank 
of the United States is put to rest by the report of the agent 
recently employed to collect information, and from that 
willingness their own safety in the operation may be confi- 
dently inferred. Knowing their own resources better than 
they can be known by others, it is not to be supposed that 
they would be willing to place themselves in a situation 
which they can not occupy without danger of annihilation 
or embarrassment. The only consideration applies to the 
safety of the public funds if deposited in those institutions, 
and when it is seen that the directors of many of them are 
not only willing to pledge the character and capital of the 
corporations in giving success to this measure, but also their 
own property and reputation, we can not doubt that they at 
least believe the public deposits would be safe in their man- 
agement. The President thinks that these facts and circum- 
stances afford as strong a guaranty as can be had in human 
affairs for the safety of the public funds and the practica- 
bility of a new system of collection and disbursement 
through the agency of the State banks. 

From all these considerations the President thinks that 
the State banks ought immediately to be employed in the 



Removal of the Public Deposits 279 

collection and disbursement of the public revenue, and the 
funds now in the Bank of the United States drawn out with 
all convenient dispatch. The safety of the public moneys if 
deposited in the State banks must be secured beyond all 
reasonable doubts ; but the extent and nature of the security, 
in addition to their capital, if any be deemed necessary, is a 
subject of detail to which the Treasury Department will un- 
doubtedly give its anxious attention. The banks to be em- 
ployed must remit the moneys of the Government without 
charge, as the Bank of the United States now does ; must 
render all the services which that bank now performs ; must 
keep the Government advised of their situation by periodi- 
cal returns ; in fine, in any arrangement with the State banks 
the Government must not in any respect be placed on a 
worse footing than it now is. The President is happy to 
perceive by the report of the agent that the banks which he 
has consulted have, in general, consented to perform the 
service on these terms, and that those in New York have 
further agreed to make payments in London without other 
charge than the mere cost of the bills of exchange. 

It should also be enjoined upon any banks which may 
be employed that it will be expected of them to facilitate 
domestic exchanges for the benefit of internal commerce ; to 
grant all reasonable facilities to the payers of the revenue; 
to exercise the utmost liberality toward the other State 
banks, and do nothing uselessly to embarrass the Bank of 
the United States. 

As one of the most serious objections to the Bank of 
the United States is the power which it concentrates, care 
must be taken in finding other agents for the service of the 
Treasury not to raise up another power equally formidable. 
Although it would probably be impossible to produce such 
a result by any organization of the State banks which could 
be devised, yet it is desirable to avoid even the appearance. 
To this end it would be expedient to assume no more power 
over them and interfere no more in their affairs than might 
be absolutely necessary to the security of the public deposit 
and the faithful performance of their duties as agents of the 



28o Andrew Jackson 

Treasury, Any interference by them in the political con- 
tests of the country with a view to influence elections ought, 
in the opinion of the President, to be followed by an imme- 
diate discharge from the public service. • 

It is the desire of the President that the control of the 
banks and the currency shall, as far as possible, be entirely 
separated from the political power of the country as well as 
wrested from an institution which has already attempted to 
subject the Government to its will. In his opinion the 
action of the General Government on this subject ought not 
to extend beyond the grant in the Constitution, which only 
authorizes Congress " to coin money and regulate the value 
thereof;" all else belongs to the States and the people, and 
must be regulated by public opinion and the interests of 
trade. 

In conclusion, the President must be permitted to remark 
that he looks upon the pending question as of higher con- 
sideration than the mere transfer of a sum of money from 
one bank to another. Its decision may affect the character 
of our Government for ages to come. Should the bank be 
suffered longer to use the public moneys in the accomplish- 
ment of its purposes, with the proofs of its faithlessness and 
corruption before our eyes, the patriotic among our citizens 
will despair of success in struggling against its power, and 
we shall be responsible for entailing it upon our country for- 
ever. Viewing it as a question of transcendent importance, 
both in the principles and consequences it involves, the 
President could not, in justice to the responsibility which 
he owes to the country, refrain from pressing upon the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury his view of the considerations which 
impel to immediate action. Upon him has been devolved 
by the Constitution and the suffrages of the American peo- 
ple the duty of superintending the operation of the Execu- 
tive Departments of the Government and seeing that the 
laws are faithfully executed. In the performance of this 
high trust it is his undoubted right to express to those whom 
the laws and his own choice have made his associates in 
the administration of the Government his opinion of their 



Removal of the Public Deposits 281 

duties under circumstances as they arise. It is this right 
which he now exercises. Far be it from him to expect or 
require that any member of the Cabinet should at his re- 
quest, order, or dictation do any act which he beHeves un- , 
lawful or in his conscience condemns. From them and from 
his fellow-citizens in general he desires only that aid and 
support which their reason approves and their conscience 
sanctions. 

In the remarks he has made on this all-important question 
he trusts the Secretary of the Treasury will see only the 
frank and respectful declarations of the opinions which the 
President has formed on a measure of great national in- 
terest deeply affecting the character and usefulness of his 
Administration, and not a spirit of dictation, which the 
President would be as careful to avoid as ready to resist. 
Happy will he be if the facts now disclosed produce uni- 
formity of opinion and unity of action among the members ^ 
of the Administration. 

The President again repeats that he begs his Cabinet to 
consider the proposed measure as his own, in the support of 
which he shall require no one of them to make a sacrifice of 
opinion or principle. Its responsibility has been assumed 
after the most mature deliberation and reflection as neces- 
sary to preserve the morals of the people, the freedom of the 
press, and the purity of the elective franchise, without which 
all will unite in saying that the blood and treasure expended 
by our forefathers in the establishment of our happy sys- 
tem of government will have been vain and fruitless. Un- 
der these convictions he feels that a measure so important 
to the American people can not be commenced too soon, 
and he therefore names the ist day of October next as a 
period proper for the change of the deposits, or sooner, 
provided the necessary arrangements with the State banks 
can be made. 



Fifth Annual Message.* 

(December 3, 1833.) 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives: On your assembling to perform the high trusts which 
the people of the United States have confided to you, of leg- 
islating for their common welfare, it gives me pleasure to 
congratulate you upon the happy condition of our beloved 
country. By the favor of Divine Providence health is again 
restored to us, peace reigns within our borders, abundance 
crowns the labors of our fields, commerce and domestic in- 
dustry flourish and increase, and individual happiness re- 
wards the private virtue and enterprise of our citizens. 

Our condition abroad is no less honorable than it is pros- 
perous at home. Seeking nothing that is not right and de- 
termined to submit to nothing that is wrong, but desiring 
honest friendships and liberal intercourse with all nations, 
the United States have gained throughout the world the 
confidence and respect which are due to a policy so just and 
so congenial to the character of the American people and 
to the spirit of their institutions. 

In bringing to your notice the particular state of our 
foreign afifairs, it affords me high gratification to inform 
you that they are in a condition which promises the con- 
tinuance of friendship with all nations. 

With Great Britain the interesting question of our north- 
eastern boundary remains still undecided. A negotiation, 
however, upon that subject has been renewed since the close 
of the last Congress, and a proposition has been submitted 
to the British Government with the view of establishing, 

♦The most important parts of this message are on (i) tlie public 
revenues; (2) public expenditures; (3) the removal of the deposits; 
(4) the Bank of the U. S. ; (5) Indian aflFairs. 

a8a 



I 



Fifth Annual Message 283 

in conformity with tlie resolution of the Senate, the Hne 
designated by the treaty of 1783. Though no definitive 
answer has been received, it may be daily looked for, and I 
entertain a hope that the overture may ultimately lead to a 
satisfactory adjustment of this important matter. 

I have the satisfaction to inform you that a negotiation 
which, by desire of the House of Representatives, was 
opened some years ago with the British Government, for the 
erection of light-houses on the Bahamas, has been success- 
ful. Those works, when completed, together with those 
which the United States have constructed on the western 
side of the Gulf of Florida, will contribute essentially to the 
safety of navigation in that sea. This joint participation in 
establishments interesting to humanity and beneficial to 
commerce is worthy of two enlightened nations, and indi- 
cates feelings which can not fail to have a happy influence 
upon their political relations. It is gratifying to the friends 
of both to perceive that the intercourse between the two 
people is becoming daily more extensive, and that senti- 
ments of mutual good will have grown up befitting their 
common origin and justifying the hope that by wise coun- 
sels on each side not only unsettled questions may be satis- 
factorily terminated, but new causes of misunderstanding 
prevented. 

Notwithstanding that I continue to receive the most ami- 
cable assurances from the Government of France, and that 
in all other respects the most friendly relations exist between 
the United States and that Government, it is to be regretted 
that the stipulations of the convention concluded on the 4th 
July, 1 83 1, remain in some important parts unfulfilled. 

By the second article of that convention it was stipulated 
that the sum payable to the United States should be paid at 
Paris, in six annual installments, into the hands of such per- 
son or persons as should be authorized by the Government 
of the United States to receive it, and by the same article the 
first installment was payable on the 2d day of February, 
1833. By the act of Congress of the 13th July, 1832, it 
was made the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to 



284 Andrew Jackson 

cause the several installments, with the interest thereon, to 
be received from the French Government and transferred 
to the United States in such manner as he may deem best; 
and by the same act of Congress the stipulations on the 
part of the United States in the convention v^ere in all re- 
spects fulfilled. Not doubting that a treaty thus made and 
ratified by the two Governments, and faithfully executed by 
the United States, would be promptly complied with by the 
other party, and desiring to avoid the risk and expense of 
intermediate agencies, the Secretary of the Treasury deemed 
it advisable to receive and transfer the first installment by 
means of a draft upon the French minister of finance. A 
draft for this purpose was accordingly drawn in favor of 
the cashier of the Bank of the United States for the amount 
accruing to the United States out of the first installment, 
and the interest payable with it. This bill was not drawn 
at Washington until five days after the installment was pay- 
able at Paris, and was accompanied by a special authority 
from the President authorizing the cashier or his assigns 
to receive the amount. The mode thus adopted of receiv- 
ing the installment was officially made known to the French 
Government by the American charge d'affaires at Paris, 
pursuant to instructions from the Department of State. 
The bill, however, though not presented for payment until 
the 23d day of March, was not paid, and for the reason as- 
signed by the French minister of finance that no appropria- 
tion had been made by the French Chambers. It is not 
known to me that up to that period any appropriation had 
been required of the Chambers, and although a communi- 
cation was subsequently made to the Chambers by direc- 
tion of the King, recommending that the necessary pro- 
vision should be made for carrying the convention into 
effect, it was at an advanced period of the session, and the 
subject was finally postponed until the next meeting of the 
Chambers. 

Notwithstanding it has been supposed by the French min- 
istry that the financial stipulations of the treaty can not be 
carried into effect without an appropriation by the Cham- 



Fifth Annual Message 285 

bers, it appears to me to be not only consistent with the 
character of France, but due to the character of both Gov- 
ernments, as well as to the rights of our citizens, to treat 
the convention, made and ratified in proper form, as pledg- 
ing the good faith of the French Government for its exe- 
cution, and as imposing upon each department an obliga- 
tion to fulfill it ; and I have received assurances through our 
charge d'affaires at Paris and the French minister pleni- 
potentiary at Washington, and more recently through the 
minister of the United States at Paris, that the delay has 
not proceeded from any indisposition on the part of the 
King and his ministers to fulfill the treaty, and that meas- 
ures will be presented at the next meeting of the Chambers, 
and with a reasonable hope of success, to obtain the neces- 
sary appropriation. 

It is necessary to state, however, that the documents, ex- 
cept certain lists of vessels captured, condemned, or burnt 
at sea, proper to facilitate the examination and liquidation 
of the reclamations comprised in the stipulations of the con- 
vention, and which by the sixth article France engaged to 
communicate to the United States by the intermediary of 
the legation, though repeatedly applied for by the American 
charge d'affaires under instructions from this Government, 
have not yet been communicated ; and this delay, it is appre- 
hended, will necessarily prevent the completion of the duties 
assigned to the commissioners within the time at present 
prescribed by law. 

The reasons for delaying to communicate these docu- 
ments have not been explicitly stated, and this is the more 
to be regretted as it is not understood that the interposi- 
tion of the Chambers is in any manner required for the de- 
livery of those papers. 

Under these circumstances, in a case so important to the 
interests of our citizens and to the character of our country, 
and under disappointments so unexpected, I deemed it my 
duty, however I might respect the general assurances to 
which I have adverted, no longer to delay the appointment 
of a minister plenipotentiary to Paris, but to dispatch him 



286 Andrew Jackson 

in season to communicate the result of his apphcation to the 
French Government at an early period of your session. I 
accordingly appointed a distinguished citizen for this pur- 
pose, who proceeded on his mission in August last and was 
presented to the King early in the month of October. He 
is particularly instructed as to all matters connected with 
the present posture of affairs, and I indulge the hope that 
with the representations he is instructed to make, and from 
the disposition manifested by the King and his ministers in 
their recent assurances to our minister at Paris, the sub- 
ject will be early considered, and satisfactorily disposed of 
at the next meeting of the Chambers. 

As this subject involves important interests and has at- 
tracted a considerable share of the public attention, I have 
deemed it proper to make this explicit statement of its actual 
condition, and should I be disappointed in the hope now 
entertained the subject will be again brought to the notice 
of Congress in such manner as the occasion may require. 

The friendly relations which have always been main- 
tained between the United States and Russia have been 
further extended and strengthened by the treaty of naviga- 
tion and commerce concluded on the 6th of December last, 
and sanctioned by the Senate before the close of its last ses- 
sion. The ratifications having been since exchanged, the 
liberal provisions of the treaty are now in full force, and 
under the encouragement which they have secured a flour- 
ishing and increasing commerce, yielding its benefits to the 
enterprise of both nations, affords to each the just recom- 
pense of wise measures, and adds new motives for that 
mutual friendship which the two countries have hitherto 
cherished toward each other. 

It affords me peculiar satisfaction to state that the Gov- 
ernment of Spain has at length yielded to the justice of the 
claims which have been so long urged in behalf of our citi- 
zens, and has expressed a willingness to provide an indemni- 
fication as soon as the proper amount can be agreed upon. 
Upon this latter point it is probable an understanding had 
taken place between the minister of the United States and 



Fifth Annual Message 287 

the Spanish Government before the decease of the late King 
of Spain ; and, unless that event may have delayed its com- 
pletion, there is reason to hope that it may be in my power 
to announce to you early in your present session the con- 
clusion of a convention upon terms not less favorable than 
those entered into for similar objects with other nations. 
That act of justice would well accord with the character of 
Spain, and is due to the United States from their ancient 
friend. It could not fail to strengthen the sentiments of 
amity and good will between the two nations which it is so 
much the wish of the United States to cherish and so truly 
the interest of both to maintain. 

By the first section of an act of Congress passed on the 
13th of July, 1832, the tonnage duty on Spanish ships ar- 
riving from the ports of Spain was limited to the duty pay- 
able on American vessels in the ports of Spain previous to 
the 20th of October, 1817, being 5 cents per ton. That act 
was intended to give effect on our side to an arrangement 
made with the Spanish Government by which discriminat- 
ing duties of tonnage v^ere to be abolished in the ports of 
the United States and Spain on the vessels of the two na- 
tions. Pursuant to that arrangement, which was carried 
into effect on the part of Spain on the 20th of May, 1832, 
by a royal order dated the 29th of April, 1832, American 
vessels in the ports of Spain have paid 5 cents per ton, which 
rate of duty is also paid in those ports by Spanish ships; 
but as American vessels pay no tonnage duty in the ports 
of the United States, the duty of 5 cents payable in our 
ports by Spanish vessels under the act above mentioned is 
really a discriminating duty, operating to the disadvantage 
of Spain. Though no complaint has yet been made on the 
part of Spain, we are not the less bound by the obligations 
of good faith to remove the discrimination, and I recom- 
mend that the act be amended accordingly. As the royal 
order above alluded to includes the ports of the Balearic 
and Canary islands as well as those of Spain, it would seem 
that the provisions of the act of Congress should be equally 
extensive, and that for the repayment of such duties as may 



288 Andrew Jackson 

have been improperly received an addition should be made 
to the sum appropriated at the last session of Congress for 
refunding discriminating duties. 

As the arrangement referred to, however, did not em- 
brace the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, discriminating 
duties to the prejudice of American shipping continue to be 
levied there. From the extent of the commerce carried on 
between the United States and those islands, particularly 
the former, this discrimination causes serious injury to one 
of those great national interests which it has been consid- 
ered an essential part of our policy to cherish, and has given 
rise to complaints on the part of our merchants. Under in- 
structions given to our minister at Madrid, earnest repre- 
sentations have been made by him to the Spanish Govern- 
ment upon this subject, and there is reason to expect, from 
the friendly disposition which is entertained toward this 
country, that a beneficial change will be produced. The dis- 
advantage, however, to which our shipping is subjected by 
the operation of these discriminating duties requires that 
they be met by suitable countervailing duties during your 
present session, power being at the same time vested in the 
President to modify or discontinue them as the discriminat- 
ing duties on American vessels or their cargoes may be 
modified or discontinued at those islands. Intimations have 
been given to the Spanish Government that the United 
States may be obliged to resort to such measures as are of 
necessary self-defense, and there is no reason to apprehend 
that it would be unfavorably received. The proposed pro- 
ceeding if adopted would not be permitted, however, in any 
degree to induce a relaxation in the efforts of our minister 
to effect a repeal of this irregularity by friendly negotiation, 
and it might serve to give force to his representations by 
showing the dangers to which that valuable trade is exposed 
by the obstructions and burdens which a system of discrim- 
inating and countervailing duties necessarily produces. 

The selection and preparation of the Florida archives for 
the purpose of being delivered over to the United States, 
in conformity with the royal order as mentioned in my last 



Fifth Annual Message 289 

annual message, though in progress, has not yet been com- 
pleted. This delay has been produced partly by causes which 
were unavoidable, particularly the prevalence of the cholera 
at Havana; but measures have been taken which it is be- 
lieved will expedite the delivery of those important records. 

Congress were informed at the opening of the last session 
that " owing, as was alleged, to embarrassments in the 
finances of Portugal, consequent upon the civil war in which 
that nation was engaged," payment had been made of only 
one installment of the amount which the Portuguese Gov- 
ernment had stipulated to pay for indemnifying our citizens 
for property illegally captured in the blockade of Terceira. 
Since that time a postponement for two years, with interest, 
of the two remaining installments was requested by the 
Portuguese Government, and as a consideration it offered 
to stipulate that rice of the United States should be admitted 
into Portugal at the same duties as Brazilian rice. Being 
satisfied that no better arrangement could be made, my con- 
sent was given, and a royal order of the King of Portugal 
was accordingly issued on the 4th of February last for the 
reduction of the duty on rice of the United States. It would 
give me great pleasure if in speaking of that country, in 
whose prosperity the United States are so much interested, 
and with whom a long-subsisting, extensive, and mutually 
advantageous commercial intercourse has strengthened the 
relations of friendship, I could announce to you the restora- 
tion of its internal tranquillity. 

Subsequently to the commencement of the last session of 
Congress the final installment payable by Denmark under 
the convention of the 28th day of March, 1830, was re- 
ceived. The commissioners for examining the claims have 
since terminated their labors, and their awards have been 
paid at the Treasury as they have been called for. The 
justice rendered to our citizens by that Government is thus 
completed, and a pledge is thereby afforded for the main- 
tenance of that friendly intercourse becoming the relations 
that the two nations mutually bear to each other. 

It is satisfactory to inform you that the Danish Govern- 



290 Andrew Jackson 

ment have recently issued an ordinance by which the com- 
merce with the island of St. Croix is placed on a more 
liberal footing than heretofore. This change can not fail to 
prove beneficial to the trade between the United States and 
that colony, and the advantages likely to flow from it may 
lead to greater relaxations in the colonial systems of other 
nations. 

The ratifications of the convention with the King of the 
Two Sicilies have been duly exchanged, and the commis- 
sioners appointed for examining the claims under it have 
entered upon the duties assigned to them by law. The 
friendship that the interests of the two nations require of 
them being now established, it may be hoped that each will 
enjoy the benefits which a liberal commerce should yield to 
both. 

A treaty of amity and commerce between the United 
States and Belgium was concluded during the last winter 
and received the sanction of the Senate, but the exchange 
of the ratifications has been hitherto delayed, in conse- 
quence, in the first instance, of some delay in the reception 
of the treaty at Brussels, and, subsequently, of the absence 
of the Belgian minister of foreign affairs at the important 
conferences in which his Government is engaged at London. 
That treaty does but embody those enlarged principles of 
friendly policy which it is sincerely hoped will always regu- 
late the conduct of the two nations having such strong 
motives to maintain amicable relations toward each other 
and so sincerely desirous to cherish them. 

With all the other European powers with whom the 
"United States have formed diplomatic relations and with the 
Sublime Porte the best understanding prevails. From all I 
continue to receive assurances of good will toward the 
United States — assurances which it gives me no less pleas- 
ure to reciprocate than to receive. With all, the engage- 
ments which have been entered into are fulfilled with good 
faith on both sides. Measures have also been taken to en- 
large our friendly relations and extend our commercial in- 
tercourse with other States. The system we have pursued 



J 



Fifth Annual Message 291 

of aiming at no exclusive advantages, of dealing with all on 
terms of fair and equal reciprocity, and of adhering scrupu- 
lously to all our engagements is well calculated to give suc- 
cess to efforts intended to be mutually beneficial. 

The wars of which the southern part of this continent 
was so long the theater, and which were carried on either 
by the mother country against the States which had for- 
merly been her colonies or by the States against each other, 
having terminated, and their civil dissensions having so far 
subsided as with few exceptions no longer to disturb the 
public tranquillity, it is earnestly hoped those States will be 
able to employ themselves without interruption in perfecting 
their institutions, cuUivating the arts of peace, and promot- 
ing by wise councils and able exertions the public and pri- 
vate prosperity which their patriotic struggles so well entitle 
them to enjoy. 

With those States our relations have undergone but little 
change during the present year. No reunion having yet 
taken place between the States which composed the Repub- 
lic of Colombia, our charge d'affaires at Bogota has been 
accredited to the Government of New Grenada, and we 
have, therefore, no diplomatic relations with Venezuela and 
Ecuador, except as they may be included in those heretofore 
formed with the Colombian Republic. 

It is understood that representatives from the three States 
were about to assemble at Bogota to confer on the subject 
of their mutual interests, particularly that of their union, 
and if the result should render it necessary, measures will 
be taken on our part to preserve with each that friendship 
and those liberal commercial connections which it has been 
the constant desire of the United States to cultivate with 
their sister Republics of this hemisphere. Until the impor- 
tant question of reunion shall be settled, however, the differ- 
ent matters which have been under discussion between the 
United States and the Republic of Colombia, or either of 
the States which composed it, are not likely to be brought 
to a satisfactory issue. 

In consequence of the illness of the charge d'affaires ap- 



292 Andrew Jackson 

pointed to Central America at the last session of Congress, 
he was prevented from proceeding on his mission until the 
month of October. It is hoped, however, that he is by this 
time at his post, and that the official intercourse, unfortu- 
nately so long interrupted, has been thus renewed on the 
part of the two nations so amicably and advantageously con- 
nected by engagements founded on the most enlarged prin- 
ciples of commercial reciprocity. 

It is gratifying to state that since my last annual message 
some of the most important claims of our fellow-citizens 
upon the Government of Brazil have been satisfactorily ad- 
justed, and a reliance is placed on the friendly dispositions 
manifested by it that justice will also be done in others. No 
new causes of complaint have arisen, and the trade between 
the two countries flourishes under the encouragement se- 
cured to it by the liberal provisions of the treaty. 

It is cause of regret that, owing, probably, to the civil 
dissensions which have occupied the attention of the Mexi- 
can Government, the time fixed by the treaty of limits with 
the United States for the meeting of the commissioners to 
define the boundaries between the two nations has been suf- 
fered to expire without the appointment of any commis- 
sioners on the part of that Government. W'hile the true 
boundary remains in doubt by either party it is difficult to 
give effect to those measures which are necessary to the 
protection and quiet of our numerous citizens residing near 
that frontier. The subject is one of great solicitude to the 
United States, and will not fail to receive my earnest at- 
tention. 

The treaty concluded with Chili and approved by the 
Senate at its last session was also ratified by the Chilian 
Government, but with certain additional and explanatory 
articles of a nature to have required it to be again submitted 
to the Senate. The time limited for the exchange of the 
ratifications, however, having since expired, the action of 
both Governments on the treaty will again become neces- 
sary. 

The negotiations commenced with the Argentine Repub- 



Fifth Annual Message 293 

lie relative to the outrages committed on our vessels en- 
gaged in the fisheries at the Falkland Islands by persons 
acting under the color of its authority, as well as the other 
matters in controversy between the two Governments, have 
been suspended by the departure of the charge d'affaires of 
the United States from Buenos Ayres. It is understood, 
however, that a minister was subsequently appointed by that 
Government to renew the negotiation in the United States, 
but though daily expected he has not yet arrived in this 
country. 

With Peru no treaty has yet been formed, and with Bo- 
livia no diplomatic intercourse has yet been established. It 
will be my endeavor to encourage those sentiments of amity 
and that liberal commerce which belong to the relations in 
which all the independent States of this continent stand to- 
ward each other. 

I deem it proper to recommend to your notice the revision 
of our consular system. This has become an important 
branch of the public service, inasmuch as it is intimately 
connected with the preservation of our national character 
abroad, with the interest of our citizens in foreign coun- 
tries, with the regulation and care of our commerce, and 
with the protection of our seamen. At the close of the last 
session of Congress I communicated a report from the Sec- 
retary of State upon the subject, to which I now refer, as 
containing information which may be useful in any inquiries 
that Congress may see fit to institute with a view to a salu- 
tary reform of the system. 

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you upon the 
prosperous condition of the finances of the country, as will 
appear from the report which the Secretary of the Treasury 
will in due time lay before you. The receipts into the Treas- 
ury during the present year will amount to more than $32,- 
000,000. The revenue derived from customs will, it is 
believed, be more than $28,000,000, and the public lands 
will yield about $3,000,000. The expenditures within the 
year for all objects, including $2,572,240.99 on account of 
the public debt, will not amount to $25,000,000, and a large 



294 Andrew Jackson 

balance will remain in the Treasury after satisfying all the 
appropriations chargeable on the revenue for the present 
year. 

The measures taken by the Secretary of the Treasury will 
probably enable him to pay off in the course of the present 
year the residue of the exchanged 4^ per cent stock, redeem- 
able on the ist of January next. It has therefore been in- 
cluded in the estimated expenditures of this year, and forms 
a part of the sum above stated to have been paid on account 
of the public debt. The payment of this stock will reduce 
the whole debt of the United States, funded and unfunded, 
to the sum of $4,760,082.08, and as provision has already 
been made for the 4^ percents above mentioned, and 
charged in the expenses of the present year, the sum last 
stated is all that now remains of the national debt; and the 
revenue of the coming year, together with the balance now 
in the Treasury, will be sufficient to discharge it, after meet- 
ing the current expenses of the Government. Under the 
power given to the commissioners of the sinking fund, it 
will, I have no doubt, be purchased on favorable terms with- 
in the year. 

. From this view of the state of the finances and the public 
engagements yet to be fulfilled you will perceive that if 
Providence permits me to meet you at another session I 
shall have the high gratification of announcing to you that 
the national debt is extinguished. I can not refrain from 
expressing the pleasure I feel at the near approach of that 
desirable event. The short period of time within which the 
public debt will have been discharged is strong evidence of 
the abundant resources of the country and of the prudence 
and economy wirti which the Government has heretofore 
been administered. We have waged two wars since we be- 
came a nation, with one of the most powerful kingdoms in 
the world, both of them undertaken in defense of our dear- 
est rights, both successfully prosecuted and honorably ter- 
minated ; and many of those who partook in the first strug- 
gle as well as in the second will have lived to see the last 
item of the debt incurred in these necessary but expensive 



Fifth Annual Message 295 

conflicts faithfully and honestly discharged. And we shall 
have the proud satisfaction of bequeathing to the public 
servants who follow us in the administration of the Govern- 
ment the rare blessing of a revenue sufficiently abundant, 
raised without injustice or oppression to our citizens, and 
unencumbered with any burdens but what they themselves 
shall think proper to impose upon it. 

The flourishing state of the finances ought not, however, 
to encourage us to indulge in a lavish expenditure of the 
public treasure. The receipts of the present year do not fur- 
nish the test by which we are to estimate the income of the 
next. The changes made in our revenue system by the acts 
of Congress of 1832 and 1833, and more especially by the 
former, have swelled the receipts of the present year far 
beyond the amount to be expected in future years upon the 
reduced tariff of duties. The shortened credits on revenue 
bonds and the cash duties on woolens which were introduced 
by the act of 1832, and took effect on the 4th of March last, 
have brought large sums into the Treasury in 1833, which, 
according to the credits formerly given, would not have 
been payable until 1834, and would have formed a part of 
the income of that year. These causes would of themselves 
produce a great diminution of the receipts in the year 1834 
as compared with the present one, and they will be still more 
diminished by the reduced rates of duties which take place 
on the ist of January next on some of the most important 
and productive articles. Upon the best estimates that can 
be made the receipts of the next year, with the aid of the 
unappropriated amount now in the Treasury, will not be 
much more than sufficient to meet the expenses of the year 
and pay the small remnant of the national debt which yet 
remains unsatisfied. I can not, therefore, recommend to 
you any alteration in the present tariff of duties. The rate 
as now fixed by law on the various articles was adopted at 
the last session of Congress, as a matter of compromise, 
with unusual unanimity, and unless it is found to produce 
more than the necessities of the Government call for there 
would seem to be no reason at this time to justify a change. 



296 Andrew Jackson 

But while I forbear to recommend any further reduction 
of the duties beyond that already provided for by the exist- 
ing laws, I must earnestly and respectfully press upon Con- 
gress the importance of abstaining from all appropriations 
which are not absolutely required for the public interest and 
authorized by the powers clearly delegated to the United 
States. We are beginning a new era in our Government. 
The national debt, which has so long been a burden on the 
Treasury, will be finally discharged in the course of the 
ensuing year. No more money will afterwards be needed 
than what may be necessary to meet the ordinar}" expenses 
of the Government. Now, then, is the proper moment to fix 
our system of expenditure on firm and durable principles, 
and I can not too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid 
economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the 
income beyond the real necessities of the Government and 
not to increase the wants of the Government by unnecessary 
and profuse expenditures. If a contrar}^ course should be 
pursued, it may happen that the revenue of 1834 will fall 
short of the demands upon it, and after reducing the tariff 
in order to lighten the burdens of the people, and providing 
for a still further reduction to take effect hereafter, it would 
be much to be deplored if at the end of another year we 
should find ourselves obliged to retrace our steps and im- 
pose additional taxes to meet unnecessary' expenditures. 

It is my duty on this occasion to call your attention to 
the destruction of the public building occupied by the Treas- 
ury Department, which happened since the last adjourn- 
ment of Congress. A thorough inquiry into the causes of 
this loss was directed and made at the time, the result of 
which will be duly communicated to you. I take pleasure, 
however, in stating here that by the laudable exertions of 
the officers of the Department and many of the citizens of 
the District but few papers were lost, and none that will 
materially affect the public interest. 

The public convenience requires that another building 
should be erected as soon as practicable, and in providing 
for it it will be advisable to enlarge in some manner the 



Fifth Annual Message 297 

accommodations for the public officers of the several De- 
partments, and to authorize the erection of suitable deposi- 
tories for the safe-keeping of the public documents and 
records. 

Since the last adjournment of Congress the Secretary of 
the Treasury has directed the money of the United States 
to be deposited in certain State banks designated by him. 
and he will immediately lay before you his reasons for this 
direction. I concur with him entirely in the "view he has 
taken of the subject, and some months before the removal 
I urged upon the Department the propriety of taking that 
step. The near approach of the day on which the charter 
will expire, as well as the conduct of the bank, appeared to 
me to call for this measure upon the high considerations of 
public interest and public duty. The extent of its miscon- 
duct, however, although known to be great, was not at that 
time fully developed by proof. It was not until late in the 
month of August that I received from the Government di- 
rectors an official report establishing beyond question that 
this great and powerful institution had been actively en- 
gaged in attempting to influence the elections of the pub- 
lic officers by means of its money, and that, in violation of 
the express provisions of its charter, it had by a formal 
resolution placed its funds at the disposition of its presi- 
dent to be employed in sustaining the political power of the 
bank. A copy of this resolution is contained in the report 
of the Government directors before referred to. and how- 
ever the object may be disguised by cautious language, no 
one can doubt that this monev was in truth intended for 
electioneering purposes, and the particular uses to which it 
was proved to have been applied abundantly show that it 
was so understood. Not only was the evidence complete as 
to the past application of the money and power of the bank 
to electioneering purposes, but that the resolution of the 
board of directors authorized the same course to be pur- 
sued in future. 

It being thus established by unquestionable proof that the 
Bank of the United States was converted into a permanent 



298 Andrew Jackson 

electioneering engine, it appeared to me that the path of 
duty which the executive department of the Government 
ought to pursue was not doubtful. As by the terms of the 
bank charter no officer but the Secretary of the Treasury 
could remove the deposits, it seemed to me that this author- 
ity ought to be at once exerted to deprive that great cor- 
poration of the support and countenance of the Govern- 
ment in such an use of its funds and such an exertion of 
its power. In this point of the case the question is distinctly 
presented whether the people of the United States are to 
govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased 
suffrages or whether the money and power of a great cor- 
poration are to be secretly exerted to influence their judg- 
ment and control their decisions. It must now be deter- 
mined whether the bank is to have its candidates for all 
offices in the country, from the highest to the lowest, or 
whether candidates on both sides of political questions shall 
be brought forward as heretofore and supported by the 
usual means. 

At this time the efforts of the bank to control public 
opinion, through the distresses of some and the fears of 
others, are equally apparent, and, if possible, more objec- 
tionable. By a curtailment of its accommodations more 
rapid than any emergency requires, and even while it re- 
tains specie to an almost unprecedented amount in its vaults, 
it is attempting to produce great embarrassment in one 
portion of the community, while through presses known to 
have been sustained by its money it attempts by unfounded 
alarms to create a panic in all. 

These are the means by which it seems to expect that it 
can force a restoration of the deposits, and as a necessary 
consequence extort from Congress a renewal of its char- 
ter. I am happy to know that through the good sense of 
our people the effort to get up a panic has hitherto failed, 
and that through the increased accommodations which the 
State banks have been enabled to afford, no public distress 
has followed the exertions of the bank, and it can not be 
doubled that the exercise of its power and the expenditure 



Fifth Annual Message 299 

of its money, as well as its efforts to spread groundless 
alarm, will be met and rebuked as they deserve. In my 
own sphere of duty I should feel myself called on by the 
facts disclosed to order a scire facias against the bank, with 
a view to put an end to the chartered rights it has so pal- 
pably violated, were it not that the charter itself will ex- 
pire as soon as a decision would probably be obtained from 
the court of last resort. 

I called the attention of Congress to this subject in my 
last annual message, and informed them that such measures 
as were within the reach of the Secretary of the Treasury 
had been taken to enable him to judge whether the public 
deposits in the Bank of the United States were entirely safe ; 
but that as his single powers might be inadequate to the ob- 
ject, I recommended the subject to Congress as worthy of 
their serious investigation, declaring it as my opinion that 
an inquiry into the transactions of that institution, embrac- 
ing the branches as well as the principal bank, was called for 
by the credit which was given throughout the country to 
many serious charges impeaching their character, and which, 
if true, might justly excite the apprehension that they were 
no longer a safe depository for the public money. The ex- 
tent to which the examination thus recommended was gone 
into is spread upon your journals, and is too well known to 
require to be stated. Such as was made resulted in a report 
from a majority of the Committee of Ways and Means 
touching certain specified points only, concluding with a res- 
olution that the Government deposits might safely be con- 
tinued in the Bank of the United States. This resolution 
was adopted at the close of the session by the vote of a 
majority of the House of Representatives. 

Although I may not always be able to concur in the views 
of the public interest or the duties of its agents which may 
be taken by the other departments of the Government or 
either of its branches, I am, notwithstanding, wholly inca- 
pable of receiving otherwise than with the most sincere re- 
spect all opinions or suggestions proceeding from such a 
source, and in respect to none am I more inclined to do so 



300 Andrew Jackson 

than to the House of Representatives. But it will be seen 
from the brief views at this time taken of the subject 
by myself, as well as the more ample ones presented by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, that the change in the de- 
posits which has been ordered has been deemed to be called 
for by considerations which are not affected by the pro- 
ceedings referred to, and which, if correctly viewed by 
that Department, rendered its act a matter of imperious 
duty. 

Coming as you do, for the most part, immediately from 
the people and the States by election, and possessing the 
fullest opportunity to know their sentiments, the present 
Congress will be sincerely solicitous to carry into full and 
fair effect the will of their constituents in regard to this in- 
stitution. It will be for those in whose behalf we all act to 
decide whether the executive department of the Govern- 
ment, in the steps which it has taken on this subject, has 
been found in the line of its duty. 

The accompanying report of the Secretary of War, with 
the documents annexed to it, exhibits the operations of the 
War Department for the past year and the condition of 
the various subjects intrusted to its administration. 

It will be seen from them that the Army maintains the 
character it has heretofore acquired for efficiency and mili- 
tary knowledge. Nothing has occurred since your last ses- 
sion to require its services beyond the ordinary routine of 
duties which upon the seaboard and the inland frontier de- 
volve upon it in a time of peace. The system so wisely 
adopted and so long pursued of constructing fortifications 
at exposed points and of preparing and collecting the sup- 
plies necessary for the military defense of the country, and 
thus providently furnishing in peace the means of defense 
in war, has been continued with the usual results. I recom- 
mend to your consideration the various subjects suggested 
in the report of the Secretary of War. Their adoption 
would promote the public service and meliorate the condi- 
tion of the Army. 

Our relations with the various Indian tribes hav^e been 



Fifth Annual Message 3°^ 

undisturbed since the termination of the difficulties growing 
out of the hostile aggressions of the Sac and Fox Indians. 
Several treaties have been formed for the relinquishment of 
territory to the United States and for the migration of the 
occupants of the region assigned for their residence west of 
the Mississippi. Should these treaties be ratified by the 
Senate, provision will have been made for the removal of 
almost all the tribes now remaining east of that river and 
for the termination of many difficult and embarrassing 
questions arising out of their anomalous political condition. 
It is to be hoped that those portions of two of the Southern 
tribes, which in that event will present the only remain- 
ing difficulties, will realize the necessity of emigration, and 
will speedily resort to it. My original convictions upon this 
subject have been confirmed by the course of events for sev- 
eral years, and experience is every day adding to their 
strength. That those tribes can not exist surrounded by 
our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is 
certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, 
the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are 
essential to any favorable change in their condition. Es- 
tablished in the midst of another and a superior race, and 
without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seek- 
ing to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force 
of circumstances and ere long disappear. Such has been 
their fate heretofore, and if it is to be averted — and it is — 
it can only be done by a general removal beyond our bound- 
ary and by the reorganization of their political system upon 
principles adapted to the new relations in which they will 
be placed. The experiment which has been recently made 
has so far proved successful. The emigrants generally are 
represented to be prosperous and contented, the country suit- 
able to their wants and habits, and the essential articles of 
subsistence easily procured. When the report of the com- 
missioners now engaged in investigating the condition and 
prospects of these Indians and in devising a plan for their 
intercourse and government is received, I trust ample means 
of information will be in possession of the Government for 



302 Andrew Jackson 

adjusting all the unsettled questions connected with this in- 
teresting subject. 

The operations of the Navy during the year and its pres- 
ent condition are fully exhibited in the annual report from 
the Navy Department. 

Suggestions are made by the Secretary of various im- 
provements, which deserve careful consideration, and most 
of which, if adopted, bid fair to promote the efficiency of 
this important branch of the public service. Among these 
are the new organization of the Navy Board, the revision of 
the pay to officers, and a change in the period of time or in 
the manner of making the annual appropriations, to which 
I beg leave to call your particular attention. 

The views which are presented on almost every portion 
of our naval concerns, and especially on the amount of force 
and the number of officers, and the general course of policy 
appropriate in the present state of our country for securing 
the great and useful purposes of naval protection in peace 
and due preparation for the contingencies of war, meet with 
my entire approbation. 

It will be perceived from the report referred to that the 
fiscal concerns of the establishment are in an excellent con- 
dition, and it is hoped that Congress may feel disposed to 
make promptly every suitable provision desired either for 
preserving or improving the system. 

The general Post-Office Department has continued, upon 
the strength of its own resources, to facilitate the means of 
communication between the various portions of the Union 
with increased activity. The method, however, in which 
the accounts of the transportation of the mail have always 
been kept appears to have presented an imperfect view of its 
expenses. It has recently been discovered that from the 
earliest records of the Department the annual statements 
have been calculated to exhibit an amount considerably 
short of the actual expense incurred for that service. These 
illusory statements, together with the expense of carrying 
into effect the law of the last session of Congress establish- 
ing new mail routes, and a disposition on the part of the head 



Fifth Annual Message 303 

of the Department to gratify the wishes of the pubhc in 
the extension of mail facihties, have inckiced him to incur 
responsibihties for their improvement beyond what the cur- 
rent resources of the Department would sustain. As soon 
as he had discovered the imperfection of the method he 
caused an investigation to be made of its results and applied 
the proper remedy to correct the evil. It became necessary 
for him to withdraw some of the improvements which he 
had made to bring the expenses of the Department within 
its own resources. These expenses were incurred for the 
public good, and the public have enjoyed their benefit. They 
are now but partially suspended, and that where they may 
be discontinued with the least inconvenience to the country. 

The progressive increase in the income from postages has 
equaled the highest expectations, and it affords demonstra- 
tive evidence of the growing importance and great utility of 
this Department. The details are exhibited in the accom- 
panying report of the Postmaster-General. 

The many distressing accidents which have of late oc- 
curred in that portion of our navigation carried on by the 
use of steam power deserve the immediate and unremitting 
attention of the constituted authorities of the country. The 
fact that the number of those fatal disasters is constantly 
increasing, notwithstanding the great improvements which 
are everywhere made in the machinery employed and in the 
rapid advances which have been made in that branch of sci- 
ence, shows very clearly that they are in a great degree the 
result of criminal negligence on the part of those by whom 
the vessels are navigated and to whose care and attention 
the lives and property of our citizens are so extensively in- 
trusted. 

That these evils may be greatly lessened, if not substan- 
tially removed, by means of precautionary and penal legis- 
lation seems to be highly probable. So far, therefore, as 
the subject can be regarded as within the constitutional pur- 
view of Congress I earnestly recommend it to your prompt 
and serious consideration. 

I would also call your attention to the views I have here- 



3^4 Andrew Jackson 

tofore expressed of the propriety of amending- the Consti- 
tution in relation to the mode of electing the President and 
the Vice-President of the United States. Regarding it as 
all important to the future quiet and harmony of the people 
that every intermediate agency in the election of these offi- 
cers should be removed and that their eligibility should be 
limited to one term of either four or six years, I can not 
too earnestly invite your consideration of the subject. 

Trusting that your deliberations on all the topics of gen- 
eral interest to which I have adverted, and such others as 
your more extensive knowledge of the wants of our beloved 
country may suggest, may be crowned with success, I tender 
you in conclusion the cooperation which it may be in my 
power to afford them. 



I 



Veto Message — Public Lands.* 

(December 4, 1833.) 

To the Senate of the United States: At the close of the 
last session of Congress I received from that body a bill en- 
titled " An act to appropriate for a limited time the proceeds 
of the sales of the public lands of the United States and for 
granting lands to certain States," The brief period then 
remaining before the rising of Congress and the extreme 
pressure of official duties unavoidable on such occasions did 
not leave me sufficient time for that full consideration of 
the subject which was due to its great importance. Subse- 
quent consideration and reflection have, however, confirmed 
the objections to the bill which presented themselves to my 
mind upon its first perusal, and have satisfied me that it 
ought not to become a law. I felt myself, therefore, con- 
strained to withhold from it my approval, and now return 
it to the Senate, in which it originated, with the reasons on 
which my dissent is founded. 

I am fully sensible of the importance, as it respects both 
the harmony and union of the States, of making, as soon as 
circumstances will allow of it, a proper and final disposition 
of the whole subject of the public lands, and any measure 
for that object providing for the reimbursement to the 
United States of those expenses with which they are justly 
chargeable that may be consistent with my views of the 
Constitution, sound policy, and the rights of the respective 
States will readily receive my cooperation. This bill, how- 
ever, is not of that character. The arrangement it contem- 
plates is not permanent, but limited to five years only, and 
in its terms appears to anticipate alterations within that 

* A pocket veto. The message can be best understood when read 
in connection with the history of the pubhc lands. (See Bibliography.) 

305 



3o6 Andrew Jackson 

time, at the discretion of Congress ; and it furnishes no ade- 
quate security against those continued agitations of the sub- 
ject which it should be the principal object of any measure 
for the disposition of the public lands to avert. 

Neither the merits of the bill under consideration nor the 
validity of the objections which I have felt it to be my duty 
to make to its passage can be correctly appreciated without 
a full understanding of the manner in which the public 
lands upon which it is intended to operate were acquired 
and the conditions upon which they are novv' held by the 
United States. I will therefore precede the statement of 
those objections by a brief but distinct exposition of these 
points. 

The waste lands within the United States constituted one 
of the early obstacles to the organization of any government 
for the protection of their common interests. In October, 
1777, while Congress were framing the Articles of Confed- 
eration, a proposition was made to amend them to the fol- 
lowing effect, viz. : 

That the United States in Congress assembled shall have 
the sole and exclusive right and power to ascertain and fix 
the western boundary of such States as claim to the Missis- 
sippi or South Sea, and lay out the land beyond the bound- 
ary so ascertained into separate and independent States from 
time to time as the numbers and circumstances of the people 
thereof may require. 

It was, however, rejected, Maryland only voting for it, 
and so difficult did the subject appear that the patriots of 
that body agreed to waive it in the Articles of Confedera- 
tion and leave it for future settlement. 

On the submission of the Articles to the several State leg- 
islatures for ratification the most formidable objection was 
found to be in this subject of the waste lands. Maryland, 
Rhode Island, and New Jersey instructed their delegates in 
Congress to move amendments to them providing that the 
waste or Crown lands should be considered the common 



Veto Message — Public Lands 3^7 

property of the United States, but they were rejected. All 
the States except Maryland acceded to the Articles, not- 
withstanding some of them did so with the reservation that 
their claim to those lands as common property was not 
thereby abandoned. 

On the sole ground that no declaration to that effect was 
contained in the Articles, Maryland withheld her assent, and 
in May, 1779, embodied her objections in the form of in- 
structions to her delegates, which were entered upon the 
Journals of Congress. The following extracts are from 
that document, viz. : 

Is it possible that those States who are ambitiously grasp- 
ing at territories to which in our judgment they have not 
the least shadow of exclusive right will use with greater 
moderation the increase of wealth and power derived from 
those territories when acquired than what they have dis- 
played in their endeavors to acquire them? * * * 

We are convinced policy and justice require that a coun- 
try unsettled at the commencement of this war, claimed by 
the British Crown and ceded to it by the treaty of Paris, if 
wrested from the common enemy by the blood and treasure 
of the thirteen States, should be considered as a common 
property, subject to be parceled out by Congress into free, 
convenient, and independent governments, in such manner 
and at such times as the wisdom of that assembly shall here- 
after direct. * * * 

Virginia proceeded to open a land office for the sale of 
her Western lands, which produced such excitement as to 
induce Congress, in October, 1779, to interpose and ear- 
nestly recommend to " the said State and all States simi- 
larly circumstanced to forbear settling or issuing warrants 
for such unappropriated lands, or granting the same, during 
the continuance of the present war." 

In March, 1780, the legislature of New York passed an 
act tendering a cession to the United States of the claims 
of that State to the Western territory, preceded by a pre- 
amble to the following effect, viz. : 



3o8 Andrew Jackson 

Whereas nothing under Divine Providence can more ef- 
fectually contribute to the tranquillity and safety of the 
United States of America than a federal alliance on such 
liberal principles as will give satisfaction to its respective 
members; and whereas the Articles of Confederation and 
Perpetual Union recommended by the honorable Congress 
of the United States of America have not proved acceptable 
to all the States, it having been conceived that a portion of 
the waste and uncultivated territory within the limits or 
claims of certain States ought to be appropriated as a com- 
mon fund for the expenses of the war, and the people of the 
State of New York being on all occasions disposed to mani- 
fest their regard for their sister States and their earnest 
desire to promote the general interest and security, and 
more especially to accelerate the federal alliance, by remov- 
ing as far as it depends upon them the before-mentioned 
impediment to its final accomplishment. * * * 

This act of New York, the instructions of Maryland, and 
a remonstrance of Virginia were referred to a committee of 
Congress, who reported a preamble and resolutions thereon, 
which were adopted on the 6th September, 1780; so much 
of which as is necessary to elucidate the subject is to the 
following effect, viz. : 

That it appears advisable to press upon those States which 
can remove the embarrassments respecting the Western 
country a liberal surrender of a portion of their territorial 
claims, since they can not be preserved entire without en- 
dangering the stability of the General Confederacy; to re- 
mind them how indispensably necessary it is to establish the 
Federal Union on a fixed and permanent basis and on prin- 
ciples acceptable to all its respective members ; how essen- 
tial to public credit and confidence, to the support of our 
Army, to the vigor of our counsels and success of our meas- 
ures, to our tranquillity at home, our reputation abroad, to 
our very existence as a free, sovereign, and independent 
people; that they are fully persuaded the wisdom of the 
several legislatures will lead them to a full and impartial 
consideration of a subject so interesting to the United 
States, and so necessary to the happy establishment of the 



Veto Message — Public Lands 3^9 

Federal Union; that they are confirmed in these expecta- 
tions by a review of the before-mentioned act of the legis- 
lature of New York, submitted to their consideration. * * * 
Resolved, That copies of the several papers referred to 
the committee be transmitted, with a copy of the report, to 
the legislatures of the several States, and that it be earnestly 
recommended to those States who have claims to the West- 
ern country to pass such laws and give their delegates in 
Congress such powers as may effectually remove the only 
obstacle to a final ratification of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, and that the legislature of Maryland be earnestly re- 
quested to authorize their delegates in Congress to sub- 
scribe the said Articles. 

Following up this policy. Congress proceeded, on the loth 
October, 1780, to pass a resolution pledging the United 
States to the several States as to the manner in which any 
lands that might be ceded by them should be disposed of, 
the material parts of which are as follows, viz. : 

Resolved, That the unappropriated lands which may be 
ceded or relinquished to the United States by any particu- 
lar State pursuant to the recommendation of Congress of 
the 6th day of September last shall be disposed of for the 
common benefit of the United States and be settled and 
formed into distinct republican States, which shall become 
members of the Federal Union and have the same rights of 
sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other States ; 
* * * that the said lands shall be granted or settled at such 
times and under such regulations as shall hereafter be agreed 
on by the United States in Congress assembled, or nine or 
more of them. 

In February, 1781, the legislature of Maryland passed an 
act authorizing their delegates in Congress to sign the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation. The following are extracts from 
the preamble and body of the act, viz. : 

Whereas it hath been said that the common enemy is en- 
couraged by this State not acceding to the Confederation to 



3IO Andrew Jackson 

hope that the union of the sister States may be dissolved, 
and therefore prosecutes the war in expectation of an event 
so disgraceful to America, and our friends and illustrious 
ally are impressed with an idea that the common cause 
would be promoted by our formally acceding to the Con- 
federation. * * * 



The act of which this is the preamble authorizes the del- 
egates of that State to sign the Articles, and proceeds to 
declare " that by acceding to the said Confederation this 
State doth not relinquish, nor intend to relinquish, any right 
or interest she hath with the other united or confederated 
States to the back country," etc. 

On the I St of March, 1781, the delegates of Maryland 
signed the Articles of Confederation, and the Federal Union 
under that compact was complete. The conflicting claims 
to the Western lands, however, were not disposed of, and 
continued to give great trouble to Congress. Repeated and 
urgent calls were made by Congress upon the States claim- 
ing them to make liberal cessions to the United States, and 
it was not until long after the present Constitution was 
formed that the grants were completed. 

The deed of cession from New York was executed on 
the ist of March, 1781, the day the Articles of Confedera- 
tion were ratified, and it was accepted by Congress on the 
29th October, 1782. One of the conditions of this cession 
thus tendered and accepted was that the lands ceded to the 
United States " shall be and inure for the use and benefit 
of such of the United States as shall become tn embers of 
the federal alliance of the said States, and for no other use 
or purpose zvhatsoever." 

The Virginia deed of cession was executed and accepted 
on the 1st day of March, 1784. One of the conditions of 
this cession is as follows, viz. : 

That all the lands within the territory as ceded to the 
United States, and not reserved for or appropriated to any 
of the before-mentioned purposes or disposed of in bounties 



Veto Message — Public Lands 3^' 

to the officers and soldiers of the American Army, shall be 
considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of such 
of the United States as have become or shall become mem- 
bers of the confederation or federal alliance of the said 
States, Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective 
proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and shall 
be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and 
for no other use or purpose whatsoever. 

Within the years 1785, 1786, and 1787 Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and South CaroHna ceded their claims upon 
similar conditions. The Federal Government went into op- 
eration under the existing Constitution on the 4th of March, 
1789. The following is the only provision of that Consti- 
tution which has a direct bearing on the subject of the pub- 
lic lands, viz. : 

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make 
all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or 
other property belonging to the United States, and nothing 
in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice 
any claims of the United States or of any particular State. 

Thus the Constitution left all the compacts before made 
in full force, and the rights of all parties remained the same 
under the new Government as they were under the Confed- 
eration. 

The deed of cession of North Carolina was executed in 
December, 1789, and accepted by an act of Congress ap- 
proved April 2, 1790. The third condition of this cession 
was in the following words, viz. : 

That all the lands intended to be ceded by virtue of this 
act to the United States of America, and not appropriated 
as before mentioned, shall be considered as a common fund 
for the use and benefit of the United States of America, 
North Carolina inclusive, according to their respective and 
usual proportions of the general charge and expenditure, 
and shall be faithfully disposed of for that purpose, and for 
no other use or purpose whatever. 



3^2 Andrew Jackson 

The cession of Georgia was completed on the i6th June, 
1802, and in its leading condition is precisely like that of 
Virginia and North Carolina. This grant completed the 
title of the United States to all those lands generally called 
public lands lying within the original limits of the Confed- 
eracy. Those which have been acquired by the purchase 
of Louisiana and Florida, having been paid for out of 
the common treasure of the United States, are as much 
the property of the General Government, to be disposed 
of for the common benefit, as those ceded by the several 
States. 

By the facts here collected from the early history of our 
Republic it appears that the subject of the public lands en- 
tered into the elements of its institutions. It was only upon 
the condition that those lands should be considered as com- 
mon property, to be disposed of for the benefit of the United 
States, that some of the States agreed to come into a " per- 
petual union." The States claiming those lands acceded to 
those views and transferred their claims to the United 
States upon certain specific conditions, and on those condi- 
tions the grants were accepted. These solemn compacts, 
invited by Congress in a resolution declaring the purposes 
to which the proceeds of these lands should be applied, orig- 
inating before the Constitution and forming the basis on 
which it was made, bound the United States to a particular 
course of policy in relation to them by ties as strong as can 
be invented to secure the faith of nations. 

As early as May, 1785, Congress, in execution of these 
compacts, passed an ordinance providing for the sales of 
lands in the Western territory and directing the proceeds to 
be paid into the Treasury of the United States. With the 
same object other ordinances were adopted prior to the or- 
ganization of the present Government. 

In further execution of these compacts the Congress of 
the United States under the present Constitution, as early 
as the 4th of August, 1790, in "An act making pro- 
vision for the debt of the United States," enacted as fol- 
lows, viz. : 



Veto Message — Public Lands 3^3 

That the proceeds of sales which shall be made of lands 
in the Western territory now belonging or that may here- 
after belong to the United States shall be and are hereby 
appropriated toward sinking or discharging the debts for 
the payment whereof the United States now are or by vir- 
tue of this act may be holden, and shall be applied solely to 
that use until the said debt shall be fully satisfied. 

To secure to the Government of the United States forever 
the power to execute these compacts in good faith the Con- 
gress of the Confederation, as early as July 13, 1787, in 
an ordinance for the government of the territory of the 
United States northwest of the river Ohio, prescribed to 
the people inhabiting the Western territory certain condi- 
tions which were declared to be " articles of compact be- 
tween the original States and the people and States in the 
said territory," which should " forever remain unalterable, 
unless by common consent." In one of these articles it is 
declared that — 

The legislatures of those districts, or new States, shall 
never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the 
United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regula- 
tions Congress may find necessary for securing the title in 
such soil to the bona fide purchasers. 

This condition has been exacted from the people of all 
the new territories, and to put its obligation beyond dispute 
each new State carved out of the public domain has been re- 
quired explicitly to recognize it as one of the conditions of 
admission into the Union. Some of them have declared 
through their conventions in separate acts that their people 
" forever disclaim all right and title to the waste and unap- 
propriated lands lying within this State, and that the same 
shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the 
United States." 

With such care have the United States reserved to them- 
selves, in all their acts down to this day, in legislating for 
the Territories and admitting States into the Union, the un- 
shackled power to execute in good faith the compacts of 



SH Andrew Jackson 

cession made with the original States. From these facts 
and proceedings it plainly and certainly results — 

1. That one of the fundamental principles on which the 
Confederation of the United States was originally based 
was that the waste lands of the West within their limits 
should be the common property of the United States. 

2. That those lands were ceded to the United States by 
the States which claimed them, and the cessions were ac- 
cepted on the express condition that they should be disposed 
of for the common benefit of the States, according to their 
respective proportions in the general charge and expendi- 
ture, and for no other purpose whatsoever. 

3. That in execution of these solemn compacts the Con- 
gress of the United States did, under the Confederation, 
proceed to sell these lands and put the avails into the com- 
mon Treasury, and under the new Constitution did repeat- 
edly pledge them for the payment of the public debt of the 
United States, by which pledge each State was expected to 
profit in proportion to the general charge to be made upon 
it for that object. 

These are the first principles of this whole subject, which 
I think can not be contested by anyone who examines the 
proceedings of the Revolutionary Congress, the cessions of 
the several States, and the acts of Congress under the new 
Constitution. Keeping them deeply impressed upon the 
mind, let us proceed to examine how far the objects of 
the cessions have been completed, and see whether those 
compacts are not still obligatory upon the United States. 

The debt for which these lands were pledged by Congress 
may be considered as paid, and they are consequently re- 
leased from that lien. But that pledge formed no part of 
the compacts with the States, or of the conditions upon 
which the cessions were made. It was a contract between 
new parties — between the United States and their creditors. 
Upon payment of the debt the compacts remain in full force, 
and the obligation of the United States to dispose of the 
lands for the common benefit is neither destroyed nor im- 
paired. As they can not now be executed in that mode, the 



Veto Message — Public Lands 315 

only legitimate question which can arise is, In what other 
way are these lands to be hereafter disposed of for the 
common benefit of the several States, " according to their 
respective and usual proportion in the general charge and 
expenditure " t The cessions of Virginia, North Carolina, 
and Georgia in express terms, and all the rest impliedly, not 
only provide thus specifically the proportion according to 
which each State shall profit by the proceeds of the land 
sales, but they proceed to declare that they shall be " faith- 
fully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no 
other use or purpose whatsoever^ This is the fundamental 
law of the land at this moment, growing out of compacts 
which are older than the Constitution, and formed the cor- 
ner stone on which the Union itself was erected. 

In the practice of the Government the proceeds of the 
public lands have not been set apart as a separate fund for 
the payment of the public debt, but have been and are now 
paid into the Treasury, where they constitute a part of the 
aggregate of revenue upon which the Government draws as 
well for its current expenditures as for payment of the pub- 
lic debt. In this manner they have heretofore and do now 
lessen the general charge upon the people of the several 
States in the exact proportions stipulated in the compacts. 

These general charges have been composed not only of 
the public debt and the usual expenditures attending the 
civil and military administrations of the Government, but 
of the amounts paid to the States with which these com- 
pacts were formed, the amounts paid the Indians for their 
right of possession, the amounts paid for the purchase of 
Louisiana and Florida, and the amounts paid surveyors, 
registers, receivers, clerks, etc., employed in preparing for 
market and selling the Western domain. 

From the origin of the land system down to the 30th 
September, 1832, the amount expended for all these pur- 
poses has been about $49,701,280, and the amount received 
from the sales, deducting payments on account of roads, 
etc., about $38,386,624. The revenue arising from the pub- 
lic lands, therefore, has not been sufficient to meet the gen- 



3^6 Andrew Jackson 

eral charges on the Treasury which have grown out of them 
by about $11,314,656. Yet in having been appHed to les- 
sen those charges the conditions of the compacts have been 
thus far fulfilled, and each State has profited according to 
its usual proportion in the general charge and expenditure. 
The annual proceeds of land sales have increased and the 
charges have diminished, so that at a reduced price those 
lands would now defray all current charges growing out of 
them and save the Treasury from further advances on their 
account. Their original intent and object, therefore, would 
be accomplished as fully as it has hitherto been by reducing 
the price and hereafter, as heretofore, bringing the proceeds 
into the Treasury. Indeed, as this is the only mode in 
which the objects of the original compact can be attained, it 
may be considered for all practical purposes that it is one 
of their requirements. 

The bill before me begins with an entire subversion of 
every one of the compacts by which the United States be- 
came possessed of their Western domain, and treats the sub- 
ject as if they never had existence and as if the United 
States were the original and unconditional owners of all the 
public lands. The first section directs — 

That from and after the 31st day of December, 1832, 
there shall be allowed and paid to each of the States of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, and 
Louisiana, over and above what each of the said States is 
entitled to by the terms of the compacts entered into be- 
tween them respectively upon their admission into the Union 
and the United States, the sum of 12^ per cent upon the net 
amount of the sales of the public lands which subsequent to 
the day aforesaid shall be made within the several limits of 
the said States, which said sum of 12^ per cent shall be ap- 
plied to some object or objects of internal improvement or 
education within the said States under the direction of their 
several legislatures. 

This I2| per cent is to be taken out of the net proceeds of 
the land sales before any apportionment is made, and the 



Veto Message — Public Lands 317 

same seven States which are first to receive this proportion 
are also to receive their due proportion of the residue ac- 
cording to the ratio of general distribution. 

Now, waiving all considerations of equity or policy in 
regard to this provision, what more need be said to demon- 
strate its objectionable character than that it is in direct and 
undisguised violation of the pledge given by Congress to 
the States before a single cession was made, that it abro- 
gates the condition upon which some of the States came 
into the Union, and that it sets at naught the terms of ces- 
sion spread upon the face of every grant under which the 
title to that portion of the public land is held by the Federal 
Government ? 

In the apportionment of the remaining seven-eighths of 
the proceeds this bill, in a manner equally undisguised, vio- 
lates the conditions upon which the United States acquired 
title to the ceded lands. Abandoning altogether the ratio of 
distribution according to the general charge and expendi- 
tune provided by the compacts, it adopts that of the Federal 
representative population. Virginia and other States which 
ceded their lands upon the express condition that they should 
receive a benefit from their sales in proportion to their part 
of the general charge are by the bill allowed only a portion 
of seven-eighths of their proceeds, and that not in the pro- 
portion of general charge and expenditure, but in the ratio 
of their Federal representative population. 

The Constitution of the United States did not delegate to 
Congress the power to abrogate these compacts. On the 
contrary, by declaring that nothing in it " shall be so con- 
strued as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of 
any particular State," it virtually provides that these com- 
pacts and the rights they secure shall remain untouched by 
the legislative power, which shall only make all " needful 
rules and regulations " for carrying them into effect. All 
beyond this would seem to be an assumption of undelegated 
power. 

These ancient compacts are Invaluable monuments of an 
age of virtue, patriotism, and disinterestedness. They ex- 



3i8 Andrew Jackson 

hibit the price that great States which had won Hberty were 
wilhng to pay for that union without which they plainly 
saw it could not be preserved. It was not for territory or 
state power that our Revolutionary fathers took up arms; 
it was for individual liberty and the right of self-govern- 
ment. The expulsion from the continent of British armies 
and British power was to them a barren conquest if through 
the collisions of the redeemed States the individual rights 
for which they fought should become the prey of petty 
military tyrannies established at home. To avert such con- 
sequences and throw around liberty the shield of union, 
States whose relative strength at the time gave them a 
preponderating power magnanimously sacrificed domains 
which would have made them the rivals of empires, only 
stipulating that they should be disposed of for the com- 
mon benefit of themselves and the other confederated States. 
This enlightened policy produced union and has secured 
liberty. It has made our waste lands to swarm with a busy 
people and added many powerful States to our Confedera- 
tion. As well for the fruits which these noble works of our 
ancestors have produced as for the devotedness in which 
they originated, we should hesitate before we demolish 
them. 

But there are other principles asserted in the bill which 
would have impelled me to withhold my signature had I 
not seen in it a violation of the compacts by which the 
United States acquired title to a large portion of the pub- 
lic lands. It reasserts the principle contained in the bill 
authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Maysville, 
Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Road Com- 
pany, from which I was compelled to withhold my consent 
for reasons contained in my message of the 27th May, 1830, 
to the House of Representatives. 

The leading principle then asserted was that Congress 
possesses no constitutional power to appropriate any part of 
the moneys of the United States for objects of a local char- 
acter within the States. That principle I can not be mis- 
taken in supposing has received the unequivocal sanction of 



Veto Message — Public Lands 3^9 

the American people, and all subsequent reflection has but 
satisfied me more thoroughly that the interests of our peo- 
ple and the purity of our Government, if not its existence, 
depend on its observance. The public lands are the common 
property of the United States, and the moneys arising from 
their sales are a part of the public revenue. This bill pro- 
poses to raise from and appropriate a portion of this public 
revenue to certain States, providing expressly that it shall 
*' be applied to objects of internal improvement or education 
zvithin those States," and then proceeds to appropriate the 
balance to all the States, with the declaration that it shall 
be applied " to such purposes as the legislatures of the said 
respective States shall deem proper." The former appropri- 
ation is expressly for internal improvements or education, 
without qualification as to the kind of improvements, and 
therefore in express violation of the principle maintained 
in my objections to the turnpike-road bill above referred to. 
The latter appropriation is more broad, and gives the money 
to be applied to any local purpose whatsoever. It will not 
be denied that under the provisions of the bill a portion of 
the money might have been applied to making the very road 
to which the bill of 1830 had reference, and must of course 
come within the scope of the same principle. If the money 
of the United States can not be applied to local purposes 
through its own agents, as little can it be permitted to be thus 
expended through the agency of the State governments. 

It has been supposed that with all the reductions in our 
revenue which could be speedily effected by Congress with- 
out injury to the substantial interests of the country there 
might be for some years to come a surplus of moneys in the 
Treasury, and that there was in principle no objection to re- 
turning them to the people by whom they were paid. As 
the literal accomplishment of such an object is obviously 
impracticable, it was thought admissible, as the nearest ap- 
proximation to it, to hand them over to the State govern- 
ments, the more immediate representatives of the people, 
to be by them applied to the benefit of those to whom they 
properly belonged. The principle and the object were to re- 



320 Andrew Jackson 

turn to the people an unavoidable surplus of revenue which 
might have been paid by them under a system which could 
not at once be abandoned, but even this recourse, which at 
one time seemed to be almost the only alternative to save 
the General Government from grasping unlimited power 
over internal improvements, was suggested with doubts of 
its constitutionality. 

But this bill assumes a new principle. Its object is not 
to return to the people an unavoidable surplus of revenue 
paid in by them, but to create a surplus for distribution 
among the States. It seizes the entire proceeds of one 
source of revenue and sets them apart as a surplus, making 
it necessary to raise the moneys for supporting the Gov- 
ernment and meeting the general charges from other 
sources. It even throws the entire land system upon the 
customs for its support, and makes the public lands a per- 
petual charge upon the Treasury. It does not return to the 
people moneys accidentally or unavoidably paid by them to 
the Government, by which they are not wanted, but com- 
pels the people to pay moneys into the Treasury for the 
mere purpose of creating a surplus for distribution to their 
State governments. If this principle be once admitted, it is 
not difficult to perceive to what consequences it may lead. 
Already this bill, by throwing the land system on the rev- 
enues from imports for support, virtually distributes among 
the States a part of those revenues. The proportion may be 
increased from time to time, without any departure from 
the principle now asserted, until the State governments shall 
derive all the funds necessary for their support from the 
Treasury of the United States, or, if a sufficient supply 
should be obtained by some States and not by others, the 
deficient States might complain; and to put an end to all 
further difficulty Congress, without assuming any new 
principle, need go but one step further and put the salaries 
of all the State governors, judges, and other officers, with 
a sufficient sum for other expenses, in their general appro- 
priation bill. 

It appears to me that a more direct road to consolidation 



Veto Message — Public Lands 321 

can not be devised. Money is power, and in that Govern- 
ment which pays all the public officers of the States will all 
political power be substantially concentrated. The State 
governments, if governments they might be called, would 
lose all their independence and dignity ; the economy which 
now distinguishes them would be converted into a profu- 
sion, limited only by the extent of the supply. Being the 
dependents of the General Government, and looking to its 
Treasury as the source of all their emoluments, the State 
officers, under whatever names they might pass and by 
whatever forms their duties might be prescribed, would in 
effect be the mere stipendiaries and instruments of the 
central power. 

I am quite sure that the intelligent people of our several 
States will be satisfied on a little reflection that it is neither 
wise nor safe to release the members of their local legisla- 
tures from the responsibility of levying the taxes necessary 
to support their State governments and vest it in Congress, 
over most of whose members they have no control. They 
will not think it expedient that Congress shall be the tax- 
gatherer and paymaster of all their State governments, thus 
amalgamating all their officers into one mass of common 
interest and common feeling. It is too obvious that such 
a course would subvert our well-balanced system of gov- 
ernment, and ultimately deprive us of all the blessings now 
derived from our happy Union. 

However willing I might be that any unavoidable sur- 
plus in the Treasury should be returned to the people 
through their State governments, I can not assent to the 
principle that a surplus may be created for the purpose of 
distribution. Viewing this bill as in effect assuming the 
right not only to create a surplus for that purpose, but to 
divide the contents of the Treasury among the States with- 
out limitation, from whatever source they may be derived, 
and asserting the power to raise and appropriate money for 
the support of every State government and institution, as 
well as for making every local improvement, however triv- 
ial, I can not give it my assent. 



322 Andrew Jackson 

It is difficult to perceive what advantages would accrue 
to the old States or the new from the system of distribu- 
tion which this bill proposes if it were otherwise unobjec- 
tionable. It requires no argument to prove that if $3,000,000 
a year, or any other sum, shall be taken out of the Treasury 
by this bill for distribution it must be replaced by the same 
sum collected from the people through some other means. 
The old States will receive annually a sum of money from 
the Treasury, but they will pay in a larger sum, together 
with the expenses of collection and distribution. It is only 
their proportion of seven-eighths of the proceeds of land 
sales which they are to receive, but they must pay their due 
proportion of the whole. Disguise it as we may, the bill 
proposes to them a dead loss in the ratio of eight to seven, 
in addition to expenses and other incidental losses. This 
assertion is not the less true because it may not at first be 
palpable. Their receipts will be in large sums, but their 
payments in small ones. The governments of the States 
will receive seven dollars, for which the people of the States 
will pay eight. The large sums received will be palpable 
to the senses; the small sums paid it requires thought to 
identify. But a little consideration will satisfy the people 
that the effect is the same as if seven hundred dollars were 
given them from the public Treasury, for which they were 
at the same time required to pay in taxes, direct or indirect, 
eight hundred. 

I deceive myself greatly if the new States would find 
their interests promoted by such a system as this bill pro- 
poses. Their true policy consists in the rapid settling and 
improvement of the waste lands within their limits. As a 
means of hastening those events, they have long been look- 
ing to a reduction in the price of public lands upon the final 
payment of the national debt. The effect of the proposed 
system would be to prevent that reduction. It is true the 
bill reserves to Congress the power to reduce the price, but 
the effect of its details as now arranged would probably be 
forever to prevent its exercise. 

With the just men who inhabit the new States it is a suf- 



Veto Message — Public Lands 3^3 

ficient reason to reject this system that it is in violation of 
the fundamental laws of the Republic and its Constitution. 
But if it were a mere question of interest or expediency 
they would still reject it. They would not sell their bright 
prospect of increasing wealth and growing power at such a 
price. They would not place a sum of money to be paid 
into their treasuries in competition with the settlement of 
their waste lands and the increase of their population. They 
would not consider a small or a large annual sum to be 
paid to their governments and immediately expended as an 
equivalent for that enduring wealth which is composed of 
flocks and herds and cultivated farms. No temptation will 
allure them from that object of abiding interest, the settle- 
ment of their waste lands, and the increase of a hardy race 
of free citizens, their glory in peace and their defense in 
war. 

On the whole, I adhere to the opinion, expressed by me 
in my annual message of 1832, that it is our true policy 
that the public lands shall cease as soon as practicable to be 
a source of revenue, except for the payment of those gen- 
eral charges which grow out of the acquisition of the lands, 
their survey and sale. Although these expenses have not 
been met by the proceeds of sales heretofore, it is quite 
certain they will be hereafter, even after a considerable re- 
duction in the price. By meeting in the Treasury so much 
of the general charge as arises from that source they will 
hereafter, as they have been heretofore, be disposed of for 
the common benefit of the United States, according to the 
compacts of cession. I do not doubt that it is the real in- 
terest of each and all the States in the Union, and particu- 
larly of the new States, that the price of these lands shall 
be reduced and graduated, and that after they have been of- 
fered for a certain number of years the refuse remaining 
unsold shall be abandoned to the States and the machinery 
of our land system entirely withdrawn. It can not be sup- 
posed the compacts intended that the United States should 
retain forever a title to lands within the States which are of 
no value, and no doubt is entertained that the general in- 



324 Andrew Jackson 

terest would be best promoted by surrendering such lands 
to the States. 

This plan for disposing of the pubhc lands impairs no 
principle, violates no compact, and deranges no system. Al- 
ready has the price of those lands been reduced from $2 per 
acre to $1.25, and upon the will of Congress it depends 
whether there shall be a further reduction. While the bur- 
dens of the East are diminishing by the reduction of the 
duties upon imports, it seems but equal justice that the chief 
burden of the West should be lightened in an equal degree 
at least. It would be just to the old States and the new, 
conciliate every interest, disarm the subject of all its dan- 
gers, and add another guaranty to the perpetuity of our 
happy Union. 

Sensible, however, of the difficulties which surround this 
important subject, I can only add to my regrets at finding 
myself again compelled to disagree with the legislative 
power the sincere declaration that any plan which shall 
promise a final and satisfactory disposition of the question 
and be compatible with the Constitution and public faith 
shall have my hearty concurrence. 

ANDREW JACKSON. 



Protest on the Expunging Resolution.* 

(April 15, 1834.) 

To the Senate of the United States: It appears by the 
published Journal of the Senate that on the 26th of De- 
cember last a resolution was offered by a member of the 
Senate, which after a protracted debate was on the 28th day 
of March last modified by the mover and passed by the 
votes of twenty-six Senators out of forty-six who were 
present and voted, in the following words, viz. : 

Resolved, That the President, in the late Executive pro- 
ceedings in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon 
himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitu- 
tion and laws, but in derogation of both. 

Having had the honor, through the voluntary suffrages 
of the American people, to fill the office of President of the 
United States during the period which may be presumed to 
have been referred to in this resolution, it is sufficiently evi- 
dent that the censure it inflicts was intended for myself. 
Without notice, unheard and untried, I thus find myself 
charged on the records of the Senate, and in a form hitherto 

* The Senate refused to allow this Protest to be entered on its jour- 
nal. The condemnation of the President for his proceedings "in re- 
lation to the public revenue" forms one of the exciting incidents of 
"the reign of Andrew Jackson." In that contest between the Senate 
and the Executive— and it fills many chapters of books on the "Jack- 
son era" — the Executive triumphed. The issue lay deeper than the 
question of a mere executive act ; it involved the functions and powers 
of the Executive under the Constitution. Benton, who was Jackson's 
Colossus on the floor of the Senate, has related in detail, in his Thirty 
Years' View, the justification of the President. We must turn to the 
speeches of Webster and Clay for the defense of th« Senate. 

325 






326 Andrew Jackson 

unknown in our history, with the high crime of violating 
the laws and Constitution of my country. 

It can seldom be necessary for any department of the 
Government, when assailed in conversation or debate or by 
the strictures of the press or of popular assemblies, to step 
out of its ordinary path for the purpose of vindicating its 
conduct or of pointing out any irregularity or injustice in 
the manner of the attack; but when the Chief Executive 
Magistrate is, by one of the most important branches of the 
Government in its official capacity, in a public manner, and 
by its recorded sentence, but without precedent, competent 
authority, or just cause, declared guilty of a breach of the 
laws and Constitution, it is due to his station, to public 
opinion, and to a proper self-respect that the officer thus de- 
nounced should promptly expose the wrong which has been 
done. 

In the present case, moreover, there is even a stronger 
necessity for such a vindication. By an express provision 
of the Constitution, before the President of the United 
States can enter on the execution of his office he is required 
to take an oath or affirmation in the following words: 

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully exe- 
cute the office of President of the United States and will to 
the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Con- 
stitution of the United States. 

The duty o^ defending so far as in him lies the integrity 
of the Constitution would indeed have resulted from the 
very nature of his office, but by thus expressing it in the 
official oath or affirmation, which in this respect differs from 
that of any other functionary, the founders of our Republic 
have attested their sense of its importance and have given 
to it a peculiar solemnity and force. Bound to the per- 
formance of this duty by the oath I have taken, by the 
strongest obligations of gratitude to the American people, 
and by the ties which unite my every earthly interest with 
the welfare and glory of my country, and perfectly con- 



The Expunging Resolution 3^7 

vinced that the discussion and passage of the above-men- 
tioned resolution were not only unauthorized by the Con- 
stitution, but in many respects repugnant to its provisions 
and subversive of the rights secured by it to other coordi- 
nate departments, I deem it an imperative duty to maintain 
the supremacy of that sacred instrument and the immuni- 
ties of the department intrusted to my care by all means 
consistent with my own lawful powers, with the rights of 
others, and with the genius of our civil institutions. To 
this end I have caused this my solemn protest against the 
aforesaid proceedings to be placed on the files of the execu- 
tive department and to be transmitted to the Senate. 

It is alike due to the subject, the Senate, and the people 
that the views which I have taken of the proceedings re- 
ferred to, and which compel me to regard them in the light 
that has been mentioned, should be exhibited at length, and 
with the freedom and firmness which are required by an oc- 
casion so unprecedented and peculiar. 

Under the Constitution of the United States the powers 
and functions of the various departments of the Federal 
Government and their responsibilities for violation or neg- 
lect of duty are clearly defined or result by necessary in- 
ference. The legislative power is, subject to the qualified 
negative of the President, vested in the Congress of the 
United States, composed of the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives ; the executive power is vested exclusively in 
the President, except that in the conclusion of treaties and 
in certain appointments to office he is to act with the advice 
and consent of the Senate ; the judicial power is vested ex- 
clusively in the Supreme and other courts of the United 
States, except in cases of impeachment, for which purpose 
the accusatory power is vested in the House of Represen- 
tatives and that of hearing and determining in the Senate. 
But although for the special purposes which have been 
mentioned there is an occasional intermixture of the powers 
of the different departments, yet with these exceptions each 
of the three great departments is independent of the others 
in its sphere of action, and when it deviates from that sphere 



328 Andrew Jackson 

is not responsible to the others further than it is expressly 
made so in the Constitution. In every other respect each of 
them is the coequal of the other two, and all are the serv- 
ants of the American people, without power or right to con- 
trol or censure each other in the service of their common 
superior, save only in the manner and to the degree which 
that superior has prescribed. 

The responsibilities of the President are numerous and 
weighty. He is liable to impeachment for high crimes and 
misdemeanors, and on due conviction to removal from office 
and perpetual disqualification ; and notwithstanding such 
conviction, he may also be indicted and punished according 
to law. He is also liable to the private action of any party 
who may have been injured by his illegal mandates or in- 
structions in the same manner and to the same extent as the 
humblest functionary. In addition to the responsibilities 
which may thus be enforced by impeachment, criminal pros- 
ecution, or suit at law, he is also accountable at the bar of 
public opinion for every act of his Administration. Subject 
only to the restraints of truth and justice, the free people of 
the United States have the undoubted right, as individuals 
or collectively, orally or in writing, at such times and in 
such language and form as they may think proper, to discuss 
his official conduct and to express and promulgate their 
opinions concerning it. Indirectly also his conduct may 
come under review in either branch of the Legislature, or 
in the Senate when acting in its executive capacity, and so 
far as the executive or legislative proceedings of these bodies 
may require it, it may be exercised by them. These are be- 
lieved to be the proper and only modes in which the Presi- 
dent of the United States is to be held accountable for his 
official conduct. 

Tested by these principles, the resolution of the Senate 
is wholly unauthorized by the Constitution, and in deroga- 
tion of its entire spirit. It assumes that a single branch of 
the legislative department may for the purposes of a public 
censure, and without any view to legislation or impeach- 
ment, take up, consider, and decide upon the official acts of 



The Expunging Resolution 3^9 

the Executive. But in no part of the Constitution is the 
President subjected to any such responsibility, and in no 
part of that instrument is any such power conferred on 
either branch of the Legislature. 

The justice of these conclusions will be illustrated and 
confirmed by a brief analysis of the powers of the Senate 
and a comparison of their recent proceedings with those 
powers. 

The high functions assigned by the Constitution to the 
Senate are in their nature either legislative, executive, or 
judicial. It is only in the exercise of its judicial powers, 
when sitting as a court for the trial of impeachments, that 
the Senate is expressly authorized and necessarily required 
to consider and decide upon the conduct of the President 
or any other public officer. Indirectly, however, as has al- 
ready been suggested, it may frequently be called on to per- 
form that office. Cases may occur in the course of its 
legislative or executive proceedings in which it may be in- 
dispensable to the proper exercise of its powers that it should 
inquire into and decide upon the conduct of the President or 
other public officers, and in every such case its constitutional 
right to do so is cheerfully conceded. But to authorize the 
Senate to enter on such a task in its legislative or executive 
capacity the inquiry must actually grow out of and tend to 
some legislative or executive action, and the decision, when 
expressed, must take the form of some appropriate legisla- 
tive or executive act. 

The resolution in question was introduced, discussed, and 
passed not as a joint but as a separate resolution. It asserts 
no legislative power, proposes no legislative action, and 
neither possesses the form nor any of the attributes of a 
legislative measure. It does not appear to have been en- 
tertained or passed with any view or expectation of its 
issuing in a law or joint resolution, or in the repeal of 
any law or joint resolution, or in any other legislative 
action. 

Whilst wanting both the form and substance of a legisla- 
tive measure, it is equally manifest that the resolution was 



33° Andrew Jackson 

not justified by any of the executive powers conferred on 
the Senate, These powers relate exclusively to the con- 
sideration of treaties and nominations to office, and they are 
exercised in secret session and with closed doors. This res- 
olution does not apply to any treaty or nomination, and was 
passed in a public session. 

Nor does this proceeding in any way belong to that class 
of incidental resolutions which relate to the officers of the 
Senate, to their Chamber and other appurtenances, or to 
subjects of order and other matters of the like nature, in all 
which either House may lawfully proceed without any co- 
operation w'ith the other or with the President. 

On the contrary, the whole phraseology and sense of the 
resolution seem to be judicial. Its essence, true character, 
and only practical effect are to be found in the conduct 
which it charges upon the President and in the judgment 
which it pronounces on that conduct. The resolution, there- 
fore, though discussed and adopted by the Senate in its leg- 
islative capacity, is in its office and in all its characteristics 
essentially judicial. 

That the Senate possesses a high judicial power and that 
instances may occur in which the President of the United 
States will be amenable to it is undeniable; but under the 
provisions of the Constitution it would seem to be equally 
plain that neither the President nor any other officer can be 
rightfully subjected to the operation of the judicial power 
of the Senate except in the cases and under the forms pre- 
scribed by the Constitution. 

The Constitution declares that " the President, Vice- 
President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be 
removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of 
treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors ;" 
that the House of Representatives " shall have the sole 
power of impeachment ;" that the Senate " shall have the 
sole power to try all impeachments ;" that " when sitting for 
that purpose they shall be on oath or affirmation ;" that 
" when the President of the United States is tried the 
Chief Justice shall preside;" that " no person shall be con- 



The Expunging Resolution 33 ^ 

victed without the concurrence of two-thirds of the mem- 
bers present," and that " judgment shall not extend further 
than to removal from office and disqualification to hold and 
enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United 
States." 

The resolution above quoted charges, in substance, that in 
certain proceedings relating to the public revenue the Pres- 
ident has usurped authority and power not conferred upon 
him by the Constitution and laws, and that in doing so he 
violated both. Any such act constitutes a high crime — one 
of the highest, indeed, which the President can commit — 
a crime which justly exposes him to impeachment by the 
House of Representatives, and, upon due conviction, to 
removal from office and to the complete and immutable 
disfranchisement prescribed by the Constitution. The reso- 
lution, then, was in substance an impeachment of the Pres- 
ident, and in its passage amounts to a declaration by a 
majority of the Senate that he is guilty of an impeachable 
offense. As such it is spread upon the journals of the Sen- 
ate, published to the nation and to the world, made part of 
our enduring archives, and incorporated in the history of 
the age. The punishment of removal from office and future 
disqualification does not, it is true, follow this decision, nor 
would it have followed the like decision if the regular forms 
of proceeding had been pursued, because the requisite num- 
ber did not concur in the result. But the moral influence of 
a solemn declaration by a majority of the Senate that the 
accused is guilty of the offense charged upon him has been 
as effectually secured as if the like declaration had been 
made upon an impeachment expressed in the same terms. 
Indeed, a greater practical effect has been gained, because 
the votes given for the resolution, though not sufficient to 
authorize a judgment of guilty on an impeachment, were 
numerous enough to carry that resolution. 

That the resolution does not expressly allege that the as- 
sumption of power and authority which it condemns was 
intentional and corrupt is no answer to the preceding view 
of its character and effect. The act thus condemned nee- 



33^ Andrew Jackson 

essarily implies volition and design in the individual to 
whom it is imputed, and, being unlawful in its character, 
the legal conclusion is that it was prompted by improper 
motives and committed with an unlawful intent. The 
charge is not of a mistake in the exercise of supposed pow- 
ers, but of the assumption of powers not conferred by the 
Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both, and noth- 
ing is suggested to excuse or palliate the turpitude of the 
act. In the absence of any such excuse or palliation there is 
only room for one inference, and that is that the intent was 
unlawful and corrupt. Besides, the resolution not only con- 
tains no mitigating suggestions, but, on the contrary, it 
holds up the act complained of as justly obnoxious to cen- 
sure and reprobation, and thus as distinctly stamps it with 
impurity of motive as if the strongest epithets had been 
used. 

The President of the United States, therefore, has been 
by a majority of his constitutional triers accused and found 
guilty of an impeachable offense, but in no part of this 
proceeding have the directions of the Constitution been ob- 
served. 

The impeachment, instead of being preferred and prose- 
cuted by the House of Representatives, originated in the 
Senate, and was prosecuted without the aid or concurrence 
of the other House. The oath or affirmation prescribed by 
the Constitution was not taken by the Senators, the Chief 
Justice did not preside, no notice of the charge was given 
to the accused, and no opportunity afforded him to respond 
to the accusation, to meet his accusers face to face, to cross- 
examine the witnesses, to procure counteracting testimony, 
or to be heard in his defense. The safeguards and formali- 
ties which the Constitution has connected with the power 
of impeachment were doubtless supposed by the framers of 
that instrument to be essential to the protection of the pub- 
lic servant, to the attainment of justice, and to the order, 
impartiality, and dignity of the procedure. These safe- 
guards and formalities were not only practically disregarded 
in the commencement and conduct of these proceedings, but 



The Expunging Resolution 333 

in their result I find myself convicted by less than two-thirds 
of the members present of an impeachable offense. 

In vain may it be alleged in defense of this proceeding 
that the form of the resolution is not that of an impeach- 
ment or of a judgment thereupon, that the punishment pre- 
scribed in the Constitution does not follow its adoption, or 
that in this case no impeachment is to be expected from the 
House of Representatives. It is because it did not assume 
the form of an impeachment that it is the more palpably re- 
pugnant to the Constitution, for it is through that form 
only that the President is judicially responsible to the Sen- 
ate ; and though neither removal from office nor future dis- 
qualification ensues, yet it is not to be presumed that the 
framers of the Constitution considered either or both of 
those results as constituting the whole of the punishment 
they prescribed. The judgment of guilty by the highest tri- 
bunal in the Union, the stigma it would inflict on the offen- 
der, his family, and fame, and the perpetual record on the 
Journal, handing down to future generations the story of 
his disgrace, were doubtless regarded by them as the bitter- 
est portions, if not the very essence, of that punishment. 
So far, therefore, as some of its most material parts are 
concerned, the passage, recording, and promulgation of the 
resolution are an attempt to bring them on the President in 
a manner unauthorized by the Constitution. To shield him 
and other officers who are liable to impeachment from con- 
sequences so momentous, except when really merited by 
official delinquencies, the Constitution has most carefully 
guarded the whole process of impeachment. A majority of 
the House of Representatives must think the officer guilty 
before he can be charged. Two-thirds of the Senate must 
pronounce him guilty or he is deemed to be innocent. Forty- 
six Senators appear by the Journal to have been present 
when the vote on the resolution was taken. If after all the 
solemnities of an impeachment thirty of those Senators had 
voted that the President was guilty, yet would he have been 
acquitted; but by the mode of proceeding adopted in the 
present case a lasting record of conviction has been entered 



334 Andrew Jackson 

up by the votes of twenty-six Senators without an impeach- 
ment or trial, whilst the Constitution expressly declares that 
to the entry of such a judgment an accusation by the House 
of Representatives, a trial by the Senate, and a concurrence 
of two-thirds in the vote of guilty shall be indispensable 
prerequisites. 

Whether or not an impeachment was to be expected from 
the House of Representatives was a point on which the Sen- 
ate had no constitutional right to speculate, and in respect 
to which, even had it possessed the spirit of prophecy, its 
anticipations would have furnished no just ground for this 
procedure. Admitting that there was reason to believe that 
a violation of the Constitution and laws had been actually 
committed by the President, still it was the duty of the Sen- 
ate, as his sole constitutional judges, to wait for an impeach- 
ment until the other House should think proper to prefer 
it. The members of the Senate could have no right to in- 
fer that no impeachment was intended. On the contrary, 
every legal and rational presumption on their part ought 
to have been that if there was good reason to believe him 
guilty of an impeachable offense the House of Representa- 
tives would perform its constitutional duty by arraigning 
the offender before the justice of his country. The contrary 
presumption would involve an implication derogatory to 
the integrity and honor of the representatives of the people. 
But suppose the suspicion thus implied were actually en- 
tertained and for good cause, how can it justify the assump- 
tion by the Senate of powers not conferred by the Consti- 
tution ? 

It is only necessary to look at the condition in which the 
Senate and the President have been placed by this proceed- 
ing to perceive its utter incompatibility with the provisions 
and the spirit of the Constitution and with the plainest dic- 
tates of humanity and justice. 

If the House of Representatives shall be of opinion that 
there is just ground for the censure pronounced upon the 
President, then will it be the solemn duty of that House to 
prefer the proper accusation and to cause him to be brought 



The Expunging Resolution 335 

to trial by the constitutional tribunal. But in what condi- 
tion would he find that tribunal? A majority of its mem- 
bers have already considered the case, and have not only 
formed but expressed a deliberate judgment upon its merits. 
It is the policy of our benign systems of jurisprudence to 
secure in all criminal proceedings, and even in the most 
trivial litigations, a fair, unprejudiced, and impartial trial, 
and surely it can not be less important that such a trial 
should be secured to the highest officer of the Government. 

The Constitution makes the House of Representatives the 
exclusive judges, in the first instance, of the question 
whether the President has committed an impeachable of- 
fense. A majority of the Senate, whose interference with 
this preliminary question has for the best of all reasons been 
studiously excluded, anticipate the action of the House of 
Representatives, assume not only the function which be- 
longs exclusively to that body, but convert themselves into 
accusers, witnesses, counsel, and judges, and prejudge the 
whole case, thus presenting the appalling spectacle in a 
free State of judges going through a labored preparation 
for an impartial hearing and decision by a previous ex parte 
investigation and sentence against the supposed offender. 

There is no more settled axiom in that Government 
whence we derived the model of this part of our Constitu- 
tion than that " the lords can not impeach any to themselves, 
nor join in the accusation, because they are judges." Inde- 
pendently of the general reasons on which this rule is 
founded, its propriety and importance are greatly increased 
by the nature of the impeaching power. The power of ar- 
raigning the high officers of government before a tribunal 
whose sentence may expel them from their seats and brand 
them as infamous is eminently a popular remedy — a remedy 
designed to be employed for the protection of private right 
and public liberty against the abuses of injustice and the 
encroachments of arbitrary power. But the framers of the 
Constitution were also undoubtedly aware that this formi- 
dable instrument had been and might be abused, and that 
from its very nature an impeachment for high crimes and 



33^ Andrew Jackson 

misdemeanors, whatever might be its result, would in most 
cases be accompanied by so much of dishonor and reproach, 
solicitude and suffering, as to make the power of preferring 
it one of the highest solemnity and importance. It was due 
to both these considerations that the impeaching power 
should be lodged in the hands of those who from the mode 
of their election and the tenure of their offices would most 
accurately express the popular will and at the same time be 
most directly and speedily amenable to the people. The 
theory of these wise and benignant intentions is in the pres- 
ent case effectually defeated by the proceedings of the Sen- 
ate. The members of that body represent not the people, 
but the States ; and though they are undoubtedly responsible 
to the States, yet from their extended term of service the 
effect of that responsibility during the whole period of that 
term must very much depend upon their own impressions of 
its obligatory force. When a body thus constituted expresses 
beforehand its opinion in a particular case, and thus indi- 
rectly invites a prosecution, it not only assumes a power 
intended for wise reasons to be confined to others, but it 
shields the latter from that exclusive and personal responsi- 
bility under which it was intended to be exercised, and re- 
verses the whole scheme of this part of the Constitution. 

Such would be some of the objections to this procedure, 
even if it were admitted that there is just ground for im- 
puting to the President the offenses charged in the resolu- 
tion. But if, on the other hand, the House of Represent- 
atives shall be of opinion that there is no reason for charging 
them upon him, and shall therefore deem it improper to 
prefer an impeachment, then will the violation of privilege 
as it respects that House, of justice as it regards the Presi- 
dent, and of the Constitution as it relates to both be only 
the more conspicuous and impressive. 

The constitutional mode of procedure on an impeachment 
has not only been wholly disregarded, but some of the first 
principles of natural right and enlightened jurisprudence 
have been violated in the very form of the resolution. It 
carefully abstains from averring in which of " the late pro- 



The Expunging Resolution 337 

ceedings in relation to the public revenue the President has 
assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred 
by the Constitution and laws." It carefully abstains from 
specifying what laws or what parts of the Constitution have 
been violated. Why was not the certainty of the offense 
— " the nature and cause of the accusation " — set out in the 
manner required in the Constitution before even the hum- 
blest individual, for the smallest crime, can be exposed to 
condemnation ? Such a specification was due to the accused 
that he might direct his defense to the real points of attack, 
to the people that they might clearly understand in what 
particulars their institutions had been violated, and to the 
truth and certainty of our public annals. As the record now 
stands, whilst the resolution plainly charges upon the Presi- 
dent at least one act of usurpation in " the late Executive 
proceedings in relation to the public revenue," and is so 
framed that those Senators who believed that one such act, 
and only one, had been committed could assent to it, its lan- 
guage is yet broad enough to include several such acts, and 
so it may have been regarded by some of those who voted 
for it. But though the accusation is thus comprehensive in 
the censures it implies, there is no such certainty of time, 
place, or circumstance as to exhibit the particular conclusion 
of fact or law which induced any one Senator to vote for it; 
and it may well have happened that whilst one Senator be- 
lieved that some particular act embraced in the resolution 
was an arbitrary and unconstitutional assumption of power, 
others of the majority may have deemed that very act both 
constitutional and expedient, or, if not expedient, yet still 
within the pale of the Constitution; and thus a majority of 
the Senators may have been enabled to concur in a vague 
and undefined accusation that the President, in the course of 
" the late Executive proceedings in relation to the public 
revenue," had violated the Constitution and laws, whilst if 
a separate vote had been taken in respect to each particular 
act included within the general terms the accusers of the 
President might on any such vote have been found in the 
minority. 



33^ Andrew Jackson 

Still further to exemplify this feature of the proceeding, 
it is important to be remarked that the resolution as orig- 
inally offered to the Senate specified with adequate precision 
certain acts of the President which it denounced as a viola- 
tion of the Constitution and laws, and that it was not until 
the very close of the debate, and when perhaps it was ap- 
prehended that a majority might not sustain the specific 
accusation contained in it, that the resolution was so modi- 
fied as to assume its present form. A more striking illustra- 
tion of the soundness and necessity of the rules which forbid 
vague and indefinite generalities and require a reasonable 
certainty in all judicial allegations, and a more glaring in- 
stance of the violation of those rules, has seldom been ex- 
hibited. 

In this view of the resolution it must certainly be regarded 
not as a vindication of any particular provision of the law 
or the Constitution, but simply as an official rebuke or con- 
demnatory sentence, too general and indefinite to be easily 
repelled, but yet sufficiently precise to bring into discredit 
the conduct and motives of the Executive. But whatever it 
may have been intended to accomplish, it is obvious that the 
vague, general, and abstract form of the resolution is in 
perfect keeping with those other departures from first prin- 
ciples and settled improvements in jurisprudence so properly 
the boast of free countries in modern times. And it is not 
too much to say of the whole of these proceedings that if 
they shall be approved and sustained by an intelligent peo- 
ple, then will that great contest with arbitrary power which 
had established in statutes, in bills of rights, in sacred char- 
ters, and in constitutions of government the right of every 
citizen to a notice before trial, to a hearing before convic- 
tion, and to an impartial tribunal for deciding on the charge 
have been waged in vain. 

If the resolution had been left in its original form it is 
not to be presumed that it could ever have received the as- 
sent of a majority of the Senate, for the acts therein speci- 
fied as violations of the Constitution and laws were clearly 
within the limits of the Executive authority. They are the 



The Expunging Resolution 339 

" dismissing the late Secretary of the Treasury because he 
would not, contrary to his sense of his own duty, remove 
the money of the United States in deposit with the Bank of 
the United States and its branches in conformity with the 
President's opinion, and appointing his successor to effect 
such removal, which has been done." But as no other speci- 
fication has been substituted, and as these were the " Ex- 
ecutive proceedings in relation to the public revenue " prin- 
cipally referred to in the course of the discussion, they will 
doubtless be generally regarded as the acts intended to be 
denounced as " an assumption of authority and powder not 
conferred by the Constitution or laws, but in derogation of 
both." It is therefore due to the occasion that a condensed 
summary of the views of the Executive in respect to them 
should be here exliibited. 

By the Constitution " the executive power is vested in a 
President of the United States." Among the duties im- 
posed upon him, and which he is sworn to perform, is that 
of " taking care that the laws be faithfully executed." Be- 
ing thus made responsible for the entire action of the execu- 
tive department, it was but reasonable that the power of 
appointing, overseeing, and controlling those who execute 
the laws — a power in its nature executive — should remain 
in his hands. It is therefore not only his right, but the Con- 
stitution makes it his duty, to " nominate and, by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint " all " officers 
of the United States whose appointments are not in the Con- 
stitution otherwise provided for," with a proviso that the 
appointment of inferior officers may be vested in the Presi- 
dent alone, in the courts of justice, or in the heads of De- 
partments. 

The executive power vested in the Senate is neither that 
of " nominating " nor " appointing." It is merely a check 
upon the Executive power of appointment. If individuals 
are proposed for appointment by the President by them 
deemed incompetent or unworthy, they may withhold their 
consent and the appointment can not be made. They check 
the action of the Executive, but can not in relation to those 



34° Andrew Jackson 

very subjects act themselves nor direct him. Selections are 
still made by the President, and the negative given to the 
Senate, without diminishing his responsibility, furnishes an 
additional guaranty to the country that the subordinate exec- 
utive as well as the judicial offices shall be filled with worthy 
and competent men. 

The whole executive power being vested in the President, 
who is responsible for its exercise, it is a necessary conse- 
quence that he should have a right to employ agents of his 
own choice to aid him in the performance of his duties, and 
to discharge them when he is no longer willing to be respon- 
sible for their acts. In strict accordance with this principle, 
the power of removal, which, like that of appointment, is an 
original executive power, is left unchecked by the Constitu- 
tion in relation to all executive officers, for whose conduct 
the President is responsible, while it is taken from him in 
relation to judicial officers, for whose acts he is not respon- 
sible. In the Government from which many of the funda- 
mental principles of our system are derived the head of the 
executive department originally had power to appoint and 
remove at will all officers, executive and judicial. It was to 
take the judges out of this general power of removal, and 
thus make them independent of the Executive, that the ten- 
ure of their offices was changed to good behavior. Nor is it 
conceivable why they are placed in our Constitution upon a 
tenure different from that of all other officers appointed by 
the Executive unless it be for the same purpose. 

But if there were any just ground for doubt on the face 
of the Constitution whether all executive officers are remov- 
able at the will of the President, it is obviated by the cotem- 
poraneous construction of the instrument and the uniform 
practice under it. 

The power of removal was a topic of solemn debate in the 
Congress of 1789 while organizing the administrative de- 
partments of the Government, and it was finally decided 
that the President derived from the Constitution the power 
of removal so far as it regards that department for whose 
acts he is responsible. Although the debate covered the 



The Expunging Resolution 34 1 

whole ground, embracing the Treasury as well as all the 
other Executive Departments, it arose on a motion to strike 
out of the bill to establish a Department of Foreign Affairs, 
since called the Department of State, a clause declaring the 
Secretary " to be removable from office by the President of 
the United States." After that motion had been decided in 
the negative it was perceived that these words did not con- 
vey the sense of the House of Representatives in relation to 
the true source of the power of removal. With the avowed 
object of preventing any future inference that this power 
was exercised by the President in virtue of a grant from 
Congress, when in fact that body considered it as derived 
from the Constitution, the words which had been the sub- 
ject of debate were struck out, and in lieu thereof a clause 
was inserted in a provision concerning the chief clerk of the 
Department, which declared that " whenever the said prin- 
cipal officer shall be removed from office by the President of 
the United States, or in any other case of vacancy," the 
chief clerk should during such vacancy have charge of the pa- 
pers of the office. This change having been made for the 
express purpose of declaring the sense of Congress that the 
President derived the power of removal from the Constitu- 
tion, the act as it passed has always been considered as a 
full expression of the sense of the Legislature on this im- 
portant part of the American Constitution. 

Here, then, we have the concurrent authority of Presi- 
dent Washington, of the Senate, and the House of Repre- 
sentatives, numbers of whom had taken an active part in 
the convention which framed the Constitution and in the 
State conventions which adopted it, that the President de- 
rived an unqualified power of removal from that instrument 
itself, which is " beyond the reach of legislative authority." 
Upon this principle the Government has now been steadily 
administered for about forty-five years, during which there 
have been numerous removals made by the President or by 
his direction, embracing every grade of executive officers 
from the heads of Departments to the messengers of bu- 
reaus. 



342 Andrew Jackson 

The Treasury Department in the discussions of 1789 was 
considered on the same footing as the other Executive De- 
partments, and in the act estabHshing it were incorporated 
the precise words indicative of the sense of Congress that 
the President derives his power to remove the Secretary 
from the Constitution, which appear in the act estabHshing 
the Department of Foreign Affairs. An Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Treasury was created, and it was provided that 
he should take charge of the books and papers of the De- 
partment " whenever the Secretary shall be removed from 
office by the President of the United States." The Secretary 
of the Treasury being appointed by the President, and being 
considered as constitutionally removable by him, it appears 
never to have occurred to anyone in the Congress of 1789, 
or since until very recently, that he was other than an exec- 
utive officer, the mere instrument of the Chief Magistrate 
in the execution of the laws, subject, like all other heads of 
Departments, to his supervision and control. No such idea 
as an officer of the Congress can be found in the Constitu- 
tion or appears to have suggested itself to those who organ- 
ized the Government. There are officers of each House the 
appointment of which is authorized by the Constitution, but 
all officers referred to in that instrument as coming within 
the appointing power of the President, whether established 
thereby or created by law, are " officers of the United 
States." No joint power of appointment is given to the two 
Houses of Congress, nor is there any accountability to them 
as one body; but as soon as any office is created by law, of 
whatever name or character, the appointment of the person 
or persons to fill it devolves by the Constitution upon the 
President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, unless 
it be an inferior office, and the appointment be vested by the 
law itself " in the President alone, in the courts of law, or 
in the heads of Departments." 

But at the time of the organization of the Treasury De- 
partment an incident occurred which distinctly evinces the 
unanimous concurrence of the First Congress in the prin- 
ciple that the Treasury Department is wholly executive in 



The Expunging Resolution 343 

its character and responsibilities. A motion was made to 
strike out the provision of the bill making it the duty of the 
Secretary *' to digest and report plans for the improvement 
and management of the revenue and for the support of pub- 
lic credit," on the ground that it would give the executive 
department of the Government too much influence and 
power in Congress. The motion was not opposed on the 
ground that the Secretary was the officer of Congress and 
responsible to that body, which would have been conclusive 
if admitted, but on other ground, which conceded his exec- 
utive character throughout. The whole discussion evinces 
an unanimous concurrence in the principle that the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury is wholly an executive officer, and the 
struggle of the minority was to restrict his power as such. 
From that time down to the present the Secretary of the 
Treasury, the Treasurer, Register, Comptrollers, Auditors, 
and clerks who fill the offices of that Department have in the 
practice of the Government been considered and treated as 
on the same footing with corresponding grades of officers 
in all the other Executive Departments. 

The custody of the public property, under such regula- 
tions as may be prescribed by legislative authority, has al- 
ways been considered an appropriate function of the exec- 
utive department in this and all other Governments. In 
accordance with this principle, every species of property be- 
longing to the United States (excepting that which is in the 
use of the several coordinate departments of the Govern- 
ment as means to aid them in performing their appropriate 
functions) is in charge of officers appointed by the Presi- 
dent, whether it be lands, or buildings, or merchandise, 
or provisions, or clothing, or arms and munitions of war. 
The superintendents and keepers of the whole are appoint- 
ed by the President, responsible to him, and removable at 

his will. 

Public money is but a species of public property. It can 
not be raised by taxation or customs, nor brought into the 
Treasury in any other way except by law ; but whenever or 
howsoever obtained, its custody always has been and always 



344 Andrew Jackson 

must be, unless the Constitution be changed, intrusted to the 
executive department. No officer can be created by Con- 
gress for the purpose of taking charge of it whose appoint- 
ment would not by the Constitution at once devolve on the 
President and who would not be responsible to him for the 
faithful performance of his duties. The legislative power 
may undoubtedly bind him and the President by any laws 
they may think proper to enact ; they may prescribe in what 
place particular portions of the public property shall be kept 
and for what reason it shall be removed, as they may direct 
that supplies for the Army or Navy shall be kept in particu- 
lar stores, and it will be the duty of the President to see that 
the law is faithfully executed ; yet will the custody remain 
in the executive department of the Government. Were the 
Congress to assume, with or without a legislative act, the 
power of appointing officers, independently of the President, 
to take the charge and custody of the public property con- 
tained in the military and naval arsenals, magazines, and 
storehouses, it is believed that such an act would be regarded 
by all as a palpable usurpation of executive power, sub- 
versive of the form as well as the fundamental principles of 
our Government. But where is the difference in principle 
whether the public property be in the form of arms, muni- 
tions of war, and supplies or in gold and silver or bank 
notes? None can be perceived; none is believed to exist. 
Congress can not, therefore, take out of the hands of the 
executive department the custody of the public property or 
money without an assumption of executive power and a sub- 
version of the first principles of the Constitution. 

The Congress of the United States have never passed an 
act imperatively directing that the public moneys shall be 
kept in any particular place or places. From the origin of 
the Government to the year 1816 the statute book was 
wholly silent on the subject. In 1789 a Treasurer was cre- 
ated, subordinate to the Secretary of the Treasury, and 
through him to the President. He was required to give 
bond safely to keep and faithfully to disburse the public 
moneys, without any direction as to the manner or places in 



The Expunging Resolution 345 

which they should be kept. By reference to the practice of 
the Government it is found that from its first organization 
the Secretary of the Treasury, acting under the supervision 
of the President, designated the places in which the public 
moneys should be kept, and especially directed all transfers 
from place to place. This practice was continued, with the 
silent acquiescence of Congress, from 1789 down to 18 16, 
and although many banks were selected and discharged, and 
although a portion of the moneys were first placed in the 
State banks, and then in the former Bank of the United 
States, and upon the dissolution of that were again trans- 
ferred to the State banks, no legislation was thought neces- 
sary by Congress, and all the operations were originated and 
perfected by Executive authority. The Secretary of the 
Treasury, responsible to the President, and with his appro- 
bation, made contracts and arrangements in relation to the 
whole subject-matter, which was thus entirely committed to 
the direction of the President under his responsibilities to 
the American people and to those who were authorized to 
impeach and punish him for any breach of this important 
trust. 

The act of 18 1 6 establishing the Bank of the United States 
directed the deposits of public money to be made in that 
bank and its branches in places in which the said bank and 
branches thereof may be established, " unless the Secretary 
of the Treasury should otherwise order and direct," in which 
event he was required to give his reasons to Congress. This 
was but a continuation of his preexisting power as the head 
of an Executive Department to direct where the deposits 
should be made, with the superadded obligation of giving 
his reasons to Congress for making them elsewhere than in 
the Bank of the United States and its branches. It is not to 
be considered that this provision in any degree altered the 
relation between the Secretary of the Treasury and the 
President as the responsible head of the executive depart- 
ment, or released the latter from his constitutional obliga- 
tion to " take care that the laws be faithfully executed." 
On the contrary, it increased his responsibilities by adding 



34^ Andrew Jackson 

another to the long Hst of laws which it was his duty to 
carry into effect. 

It would be an extraordinary result if because the person 
charged by law with a public duty is one of his Secretaries 
it were less the duty of the President to see that law faith- 
fully executed than other laws enjoining duties upon subor- 
dinate officers or private citizens. If there be any differ- 
ence, it would seem that the obligation is the stronger in 
relation to the former, because the neglect is in his presence 
and the remedy at hand. 

It can not be doubted that it was the legal duty of the 
Secretary of the Treasury to order and direct the deposits 
of the public money to be made elsewhere than in the Bank 
of the United States whenever sufficient reasons existed for 
making the change. If in such a case he neglected or re- 
fused to act, he would neglect or refuse to execute the law. 
What would be the sworn duty of the President ? Could he 
say that the Constitution did not bind him to see the law 
faithfully executed because it was one of his Secretaries and 
not himself upon whom the service was specially imposed ? 
Might he not be asked whether there was any such limita- 
tion to his obligations prescribed in the Constitution? 
Whether he is not equally bound to take care that the laws 
be faithfully executed, whether they impose duties on the 
highest officer of State or the lowest subordinate in any of 
the Departments ? Might he not be told that it was for the 
sole purpose of causing all executive officers, from the high- 
est to the lowest, faithfully to perform the services required 
of them by law that the people of the United States have 
made him their Chief Magistrate and the Constitution has 
clothed him with the entire executive power of this Govern- 
ment ? The principles implied in these questions appear too 
plain to need elucidation. 

But here also we have a cotemporaneous construction of 
the act which shows that it was not understood as in any 
way changing the relations between the President and Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, or as placing the latter out of Exec- 
utive control even in relation to the deposits of the public 



The Expunging Resolution 347 

money. Nor on that point are we left to any equivocal testi- 
mony. The documents of the Treasury Department show 
that the Secretary of the Treasury did apply to the President 
and obtained his approbation and sanction to the original 
transfer of the public deposits to the present Bank pf the 
United States, and did carry the measure into effect in obe- 
dience to his decision. They also show that transfers of the 
public deposits from the branches of the Bank of the United 
States to State banks at Chillicothe, Cincinnati, and Louis- 
ville, in 1819, were made with the approbation of the Presi- 
dent and by his authority. They show that upon all impor- 
tant questions appertaining to his Department, whether they 
related to the public deposits or other matters, it was the 
constant practice of the Secretary of the Treasury to obtain 
for his acts the approval and sanction of the President. 
These acts and the principles on which they were founded 
were known to all the departments of the Government, to 
Congress and the country, and until very recently appear 
never to have been called in question. 

Thus was it settled by the Constitution, the laws, and the 
whole practice of the Government that the entire executive 
power is vested in the President of the United States ; that 
as incident to that power the right of appointing and remov- 
ing those officers who are to aid him in the execution of the 
laws, with such restrictions only as the Constitution pre- 
scribes, is vested in the President ; that the Secretary of the 
Treasury is one of those officers; that the custody of the 
public property and money is an Executive function which, 
in relation to the money, has always been exercised through 
the Secretary of the Treasury and his subordinates ; that in 
the performance of these duties he is subject to the super- 
vision and control of the President^ and in all important 
measures having relation to them consults the Chief Magis- 
trate and obtains his approval and sanction ; that the law 
establishing the bank did not, as it could not, change the 
relation between the President and the Secretary — did not 
release the former from his obligation to see the law faith- 
fully executed nor the latter from the President's supervision 



34^ Andrew Jackson 

and control; that afterwards and before the Secretary did 
in fact consult and obtain the sanction of the President to 
transfers and removals of the public deposits, and that all 
departments of the Government, and the nation itself, ap- 
proved or acquiesced in these acts and principles as in strict 
conformity with our Constitution and laws. 

During the last year the approaching termination, accord- 
ing to the provisions of its charter and the solemn decision 
of the American people, of the Bank of the United States 
made it expedient, and its exposed abuses and corruptions 
made it, in my opinion, the duty of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, to place the moneys of the United States in other 
depositories. The Secretary did not concur in that opinion, 
and declined giving the necessary order and direction. So 
glaring were the abuses and corruptions of the bank, so evi- 
dent its fixed purpose to persevere in them, and so palpable 
its design by its money and power to control the Govern- 
ment and change its character, that I deemed it the imper- 
ative duty of the Executive authority, by the exertion of 
every power confided to it by the Constitution and laws, to 
check its career and lessen its ability to do mischief, even in 
the painful alternative of dismissing the head of one of the 
Departments. At the time the removal was made other 
causes sufficient to justify it existed, but if they had not the 
Secretary would have been dismissed for this cause only. 

His place I supplied by one whose opinions were well 
known to me, and whose frank expression of them in an- 
other situation and generous sacrifices of interest and feeling 
when unexpectedly called to the station he now occupies 
ought forever to have shielded his motives from suspicion 
and his character from reproach. In accordance with the 
views long before expressed by him he proceeded, with my 
sanction, to make arrangements for depositing the moneys 
of the United States in other safe institutions. 

The resolution of the Senate as originally framed and as 
passed, if it refers to these acts, presupposes a right in that 
body to interfere with this exercise of Executive power. If 
the principle be once admitted, it is not difficult to perceive 



The Expunging Resolution 349 

where it may end. If by a mere denunciation like this reso- 
lution the President should ever be induced to act in a mat- 
ter of official duty contrary to the honest convictions of his 
own mind in compliance with the wishes of the Senate, the 
constitutional independence of the executive department 
would be as effectually destroyed and its power as effectually 
transferred to the Senate as if that end had been accom- 
plished by an amendment of the Constitution. But if the 
Senate have a right to interfere with the Executive powers, 
they have also the right to make that interference effective, 
and if the assertion of the power implied in the resolution 
be silently acquiesced in we may reasonably apprehend that 
it will be followed at some future day by an attempt at 
actual enforcement. The Senate may refuse, except on the 
condition that he will surrender his opinions to theirs and 
obey their will, to perform their own constitutional func- 
tions, to pass the necessary laws, to sanction appropriations 
proposed by the House of Representatives, and to confirm 
proper nominations made by the President. It has already 
been maintained (and it is not conceivable that the resolu- 
tion of the Senate can be based on any other principle) that 
the Secretary of the Treasury is the officer of Congress and 
independent of the President; that the President has no 
right to control him, and consequently none to remove him. 
With the same propriety and on similar grounds may the 
Secretary of State, the Secretaries of War and the Navy, 
and the Postmaster-General each in succession be declared 
independent of the President, the subordinates of Congress, 
and removable only with the concurrence of the Senate. 
Followed to its consequences, this principle will be found 
effectually to destroy one coordinate department of the Gov- 
ernment, to concentrate in the hands of the Senate the whole 
executive power, and to leave the President as powerless as 
he would be useless — the shadow of authority after the sub- 
stance had departed. 

The time and the occasion which have called forth the 
resolution of the Senate seem to impose upon me an addi- 
tional obligation not to pass it over in silence. Nearly forty- 



35° Andrew Jackson 

five years had the President exercised, without a question 
as to his rightful authority, those powers for the recent as- 
sumption of which he is now denounced. The vicissitudes 
of peace and war had attended our Government; violent 
parties, watchful to take advantage of any seeming usurpa- 
tion on the part of the Executive, had distracted our coun- 
cils ; frequent removals, or forced resignations in every sense 
tantamount to removals, had been made of the Secretary 
and other officers of the Treasury, and yet in no one instance 
is it known that any man, whether patriot or partisan, had 
raised his voice against it as a violation of the Constitution. 
The expediency and justice of such changes in reference to 
public officers of all grades have frequently been the topic 
of discussion, but the constitutional right of the President 
to appoint, control, and remove the head of the Treasury as 
well as all other Departments seems to have been universally 
conceded. And w^iat is the occasion upon which other prin- 
ciples have been first officially asserted? The Bank of the 
United States, a great moneyed monopoly, had attempted to 
obtain a renewal of its charter by controlling the elections 
of the people and the action of the Government. The use 
of its corporate funds and power in that attempt was fully 
disclosed, and it was made known to the President that the 
corporation was putting in train the same course of meas- 
ures, with the view of making another vigorous effort, 
through an interference in the elections of the people, to 
control public opinion and force the Government to yield to 
its demands. This, with its corruption of the press, its viola- 
tion of its charter, its exclusion of the Government directors 
from its proceedings, its neglect of duty and arrogant pre- 
tensions, made it, in the opinion of the President, incompat- 
ible with the public interest and the safety of our institutions 
that it should be longer employed as the fiscal agent of the 
Treasury. A Secretary of the Treasury appointed in the 
recess of the Senate, who had not been confirmed by that 
body, and whom the President might or might not at his 
pleasure nominate to them, refused to do what his superior 
in the executive department considered the most imperative 



The Expunging Resolution 351 

of his duties, and became in fact, however innocent his 
motives, the protector of the bank. And on this occasion it 
is discovered for the first time that those who framed the 
Constitution misunderstood it; that the First Congress and 
all its successors have been under a delusion ; that the prac- 
tice of near forty-five years is but a continued usurpation; 
that the Secretary of the Treasury is not responsible to the 
President, and that to remove him is a violation of the Con- 
stitution and laws for which the President deserves to stand 
forever dishonored on the journals of the Senate. 

There are also some other circumstances connected with 
the discussion and passage of the resolution to which I feel 
it to be not only my right, but my duty, to refer. It appears 
by the Journal of the Senate that among the twenty-six Sen- 
ators who voted for the resolution on its final passage, and 
who had supported it in debate in its original form, were 
one of the Senators from the State of Maine, the two Sen- 
ators from New Jersey, and one of the Senators from Ohio. 
It also appears by the same Journal and by the files of the 
Senate that the legislatures of these States had severally 
expressed their opinions in respect to the Executive proceed- 
ings drawn in question before the Senate. 

The two branches of the legislature of the State of Maine 
on the 25th of January, 1834, passed a preamble and series 
of resolutions in the following words: 

Whereas at an early period after the election of Andrew 
Jackson to the Presidency, in accordance with the senti- 
ments which he had uniformly expressed, the attention of 
Congress was called to the constitutionality and expediency 
of the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank; 
and 

Whereas the bank has transcended its chartered limits in 
the management of its business transactions, and has aban- 
doned the object of its creation by engaging in political con- 
troversies, by wielding its power and influence to embarrass 
the Administration of the General Government, and by 
bringing insolvency and distress upon the commercial com- 
munity; and 



352 Andrew Jackson 

Whereas the public security from such an institution con- 
sists less in its present pecuniary capacity to discharge its 
liabilities than in the fidelity with which the trusts reposed 
in it have been executed ; and 

Whereas the abuse and misapplication of the powers con- 
ferred have destroyed the confidence of the public in the 
officers of the bank and demonstrated that such powers en- 
danger the stability of republican institutions : Therefore, 

Resolved, That in the removal of the public deposits from 
the Bank of the United States, as well as in the manner of 
their removal, we recognize in the Administration an ad- 
herence to constitutional rights and the performance of a 
public duty. 

Resolved, That this legislature entertain the same opinion 
as heretofore expressed by preceding legislatures of this 
State, that the Bank of the United States ought not to be 
rechartered. 

Resolved, That the Senators of this State in the Congress 
of the United States be instructed and the Representatives 
be requested to oppose the restoration of the deposits and 
the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank. 

On the nth of January, 1834, the house of assembly and 
council composing the legislature of the State of New Jersey 
passed a preamble and a series of resolutions in the follow- 
ing words : 

Whereas the present crisis in our public affairs calls for 
a decided expression of the voice of the people of this State ; 
and 

Whereas we consider it the undoubted right of the legis- 
latures of the several States to instruct those who represent 
their interests in the councils of the nation in all matters 
which intimately concern the public weal and may affect the 
happiness or well-being of the people : Therefore, 

I. Be it resolved by the council and general assembly of 
this State, That while we acknowledge with feelings of de- 
vout gratitude our obligations to the Great Ruler of Na- 
tions for His mercies to us as a people that we have been 
preserved alike from foreign war, from the evils of internal 
commotions, and the machinations of designing and ambi- 



The Expunging Resolution 353 

tious men who would prostrate the fair fabric of our Union, 
that we ought nevertheless to humble ourselves in His pres- 
ence and implore His aid for the perpetuation of our repub- 
lican institutions and for a continuance of that unexampled 
prosperity which our country has hitherto enjoyed, 

2. Resolved, That we have undiminished confidence in 
the integrity and firmness of the venerable patriot who now 
holds the distinguished post of Chief Magistrate of this na- 
tion, and whose purity of purpose and elevated motives have 
so often received the unqualified approbation of a large ma- 
jority of his fellow-citizens. 

3. Resolved, That we view with agitation and alarm the 
existence of a great moneyed incorporation which threatens 
to embarrass the operations of the Government and by means 
of its unbounded influence upon the currency of the country 
to scatter distress and ruin throughout the community, and 
that we therefore solemnly believe the present Bank of the 
United States ought not to be rechartered. 

4. Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed 
and our members of the House of Representatives be re- 
quested to sustain, by their votes and influence, the course 
adopted by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Taney, in 
relation to the Bank of the United States and the deposits 
of the Government moneys, believing as we do the course 
of the Secretary to have been constitutional, and that the 
public good required its adoption. 

5. Resolved, That the governor be requested to forward 
a copy of the above resolutions to each of our Senators and 
Representatives from this State to the Congress of the 
United States. 

On the 2 1 St day of February last the legislature of the 
same State reiterated the opinions and instructions before 
given by joint resolutions in the following words : 

Resolved by the council and general assembly of the State 
of New Jersey, That they do adhere to the resolutions 
passed by them on the nth day of January last, relative to 
the President of the United States, the Bank of the United 
States, and the course of Mr. Taney in removing the Gov- 
ernment deposits. 



354 Andrew Jackson 

Resolved, That the legislature of New Jersey have not 
seen any reason to depart from such resolutions since the 
passage thereof, and it is their wish that they should receive 
from our Senators and Representatives of this State in the 
Congress of the United States that attention and obedience 
which are due to the opinion of a sovereign State openly 
expressed in its legislative capacity. 

On the 2d of January, 1834, the senate and house of rep- 
resentatives composing the legislature of Ohio passed a pre- 
amble and resolutions in the following words : 

Whereas there is reason to believe that the Bank of the 
United States will attempt to obtain a renewal of its charter 
at the present session of Congress ; and 

Whereas it is abundantly evident that said bank has exer- 
cised powers derogatory to the spirit of our free institutions 
and dangerous to the liberties of these United States ; and 

Whereas there is just reason to doubt the constitutional 
power of Congress to grant acts of incorporation for bank- 
ing purposes out of the District of Columbia ; and 

Whereas we believe the proper disposal of the public 
lands to be of the utmost importance to the people of these 
United States, and that honor and good faith require their 
equitable distribution : Therefore, 

Resolved by the general assembly of the State of Ohio, 
That we consider the removal of the public deposits from 
the Bank of the United States as required by the best inter- 
ests of our country, and that a proper sense of public duty 
imperiously demanded that that institution should be no 
longer used as a depository of the public funds. 

Resolved also, That we view with decided disapprobation 
the renewed attempts in Congress to secure the passage of 
the bill providing for the disposal of the public domain upon 
the principles proposed by Mr. Clay, inasmuch as we believe 
that such a law would be unequal in its operations and un- 
just in its results. 

Resolved also, That we heartily approve of the principles 
set forth in the late veto message upon that subject; and 

Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed 
and our Representatives requested to use their influence to 



The Expunging Resolution 355 

prevent the rechartering of the Bank of the United States, 
to sustain the Administration in its removal of the pubHc 
deposits, and to oppose the passage of a land bill containing 
the principles adopted in the act upon that subject passed 
at the last session of Congress. 

Resolved, That the governor be requested to transmit 
copies of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to each of 
our Senators and Representatives. 

It is thus seen that four Senators have declared by their 
votes that the President, in the late Executive proceedings 
in relation to the revenue, had been guilty of the impeach- 
able offense of "assuming upon himself authority and power 
not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in deroga- 
tion of both," whilst the legislatures of their respective 
States had deliberately approved those very proceedings as 
consistent with the Constitution and demanded by the public 
good. If these four votes had been given in accordance with 
the sentiments of the legislatures, as above expressed, there 
would have been but twenty-two votes out of forty-six for 
censuring the President, and the unprecedented record of his 
conviction could not have been placed upon the Journal of 
the Senate. 

In thus referring to the resolutions and instructions of the 
State legislatures I disclaim and repudiate all authority or 
design to interfere with the responsibility due from members 
of the Senate to their own consciences, their constituents, 
and their country. The facts now stated belong to the his- 
tory of these proceedings, and are important to the just de- 
velopment of the principles and interests involved in them 
as well as to the proper vindication of the executive depart- 
ment, and with that view, and that view only, are they here 
made the topic of remark. 

The dangerous tendency of the doctrine which denies to 
the President the power of supervising, directing, and con- 
trolling the Secretary of the Treasury in like manner with 
the other executive officers would soon be manifest in prac- 
tice were the doctrine to be established. The President is 
the direct representative of the American people, but the Sec- 



35^ Andrew Jackson 

retaries are not. If the Secretary of the Treasury be inde- 
pendent of the President in the execution of the laws, then 
is there no direct responsibiHty to the people in that impor- 
tant branch of this Government to which is committed the 
care of the national finances. And it is in the power of the 
Bank of the United States, or any other corporation, body 
of men, or individuals, if a Secretary shall be found to ac- 
cord with them in opinion or can be induced in practice to 
promote their views, to control through him the whole ac- 
tion of the Government (so far as it is exercised by his 
Department) in defiance of the Chief Magistrate elected by 
the people and responsible to them. 

But the evil tendency of the particular doctrine adverted 
to, though suf^ciently serious, would be as nothing in com- 
parison with the pernicious consequences which would in- 
evitably flow from the approbation and allowance by the 
people and the practice by the Senate of the unconstitutional 
power of arraigning and censuring the of^cial conduct of the 
Executive in the manner recently pursued. Such proceed- 
ings are eminently calculated to unsettle the foundations of 
the Government, to disturb the harmonious action of its dif- 
ferent departments, and to break down the checks and bal- 
ances by which the wisdom of its framers sought to insure 
its stability and usefulness. 

The honest differences of opinion which occasionally exist 
between the Senate and the President in regard to matters 
in which both are obliged to participate are sufficiently em- 
barrassing ; but if the course recently adopted by the Senate 
shall hereafter be frequently pursued, it is not only obvious 
that the harmony of the relations between the President and 
the Senate will be destroyed, but that other and graver ef- 
fects will ultimately ensue. If the censurers of the Senate 
be submitted to by the President, the confidence of the peo- 
ple in his ability and virtue and the character and usefulness 
of his Administration will soon be at an end, and the real 
power of the Government will fall into the hands of a body 
holding their offices for long terms, not elected by the people 
and not to them directly responsible. If, on the other hand, 



The Expunging Resolution 357 

the illegal censures of the Senate should be resisted by the 
President, collisions and angry controversies might ensue, 
discreditable in their progress and in the end compelling the 
people to adopt the conclusion either that their Chief Magis- 
trate was unworthy of their respect or that the Senate was 
chargeable with calumny and injustice. Either of these re- 
sults would impair public confidence in the perfection of the 
system and lead to serious alterations of its framework or 
to the practical abandonment of some of its provisions. 

The influence of such proceedings on the other depart- 
ments of the Government, and more especially on the States, 
could not fail to be extensively pernicious. When the judges 
in the last resort of official misconduct themselves overleap 
the bounds of their authority as prescribed by the Constitu- 
tion, what general disregard of its provisions might not their 
example be expected to produce? And who does not per- 
ceive that such contempt of the Federal Constitution by one 
of its most important departments would hold out the 
strongest temptations to resistance on the part of the State 
sovereignties whenever they shall suppose their just rights 
to have been invaded? Thus all the independent depart- 
ments of the Government, and the States which compose 
our confederated Union, instead of attending to their ap- 
propriate duties and leaving those who may offend to be 
reclaimed or punished in the manner pointed out in the Con- 
stitution, would fall to mutual crimination and recrimination 
and give to the people confusion and anarchy instead of 
order and law, until at length some form of aristocratic 
power would be established on the ruins of the Constitution 
or the States be broken into separate communities. 

Far be it from me to charge or to insinuate that the pres- 
ent Senate of the United States intend in the most distant 
way to encourage such a result. It is not of their motives 
or designs, but only of the tendency of their acts, that it is 
my duty to speak. It is, if possible, to make Senators them- 
selves sensible of the danger which lurks under the precedent 
set in their resolution, and at any rate to perform my duty 
as the responsible head of one of the coequal departments 



35^ Andrew Jackson 

of the Government, that I have been compelled to point out 
the consequences to which the discussion and passage of the 
resolution may lead if the tendency of the measure be not 
checked in its inception. It is due to the high trust with 
which I have been charged, to those who may be called to 
succeed me in it, to the representatives of the people whose 
constitutional prerogative has been unlawfully assumed, to 
the people and to the States, and to the Constitution they 
have established that I should not permit its provisions to 
be broken down by such an attack on the executive depart- 
ment without at least some effort " to preserve, protect, and 
defend " them. With this view, and for the reasons which 
have been stated, I do hereby solemnly protest against the 
aforementioned proceedings of the Senate as unauthorized 
by the Constitution, contrary to its spirit and to several of 
its express provisions, subversive of that distribution of the 
powers of government which it has ordained and established, 
destructive of the checks and safeguards by which those 
powers were intended on the one hand to be controlled and 
on the other to be protected, and calculated by their immedi- 
ate and collateral effects, by their character and tendency, 
to concentrate in the hands of a body not directly ame- 
nable to the people a degree of influence and power danger- 
ous to their liberties and fatal to the Constitution of their 
choice. 

The resolution of the Senate contains an imputation upon 
my private as well as upon my public character, and as it 
must stand forever on their journals, I can not close this 
substitute for that defense which I have not been allowed 
to present in the ordinary form without remarking that I 
have lived in vain if it be necessary to enter into a formal 
vindication of my character and purposes from such an im- 
putation. In vain do I bear upon my person enduring 
memorials of that contest in which American liberty was 
purchased ; in vain have I since periled property, fame, and 
life in defense of the rights and privileges so dearly bought ; 
in vain am I now, without a personal aspiration or the hope 
of individual advantage, encountering responsibilities and 



The Expunging Resolution 359 

dangers from which by mere inactivity in relation to a single 
point I might have been exempt, if any serious doubts can 
be entertained as to the purity of my purposes and motives. 
If I had been ambitious, I should have sought an alliance 
with that powerful institution which even now aspires to no 
divided empire. If I had been venal, I should have sold 
myself to its designs. Had I preferred personal comfort and 
official ease to the performance of my arduous duty, I should 
have ceased to molest it. In the history of conquerors and 
usurpers, never in the fire of youth nor in the vigor of man- 
hood could I find an attraction to lure me from the path of 
duty, and now I shall scarcely find an inducement to com- 
mence their career of ambition when gray hairs and a de- 
caying frame, instead of inviting to toil and battle, call me 
to the contemplation of other worlds, where conquerors 
cease to be honored and usurpers expiate their crimes. The 
only ambition I can feel is to acquit myself to Him to whom 
I must soon render an account of my stewardship, to serve 
my fellow-men, and live respected and honored in the his- 
tory of my country. No ; the ambition which leads me on is 
an anxious desire and a fixed determination to return to the 
people unimpaired the sacred trust they have confided to my 
charge ; to heal the wounds of the Constitution and preserve 
it from further violation; to persuade my countrymen, so 
far as I may, that it is not in a splendid government sup- 
ported by powerful monopolies and aristocratical establish- 
ments that they will find happiness or their liberties protec- 
tion, but in a plain system, void of pomp, protecting all and 
granting favors to none, dispensing its blessings, like the 
dews of Heaven, unseen and unfelt save in the freshness and 
beauty they contribute to produce. It is such a government 
that the genius of our people requires; such an one only 
under which our States may remain for ages to come united, 
prosperous, and free. If the Almighty Being who has hith- 
erto sustained and protected me will but vouchsafe to make 
my feeble powers instrumental to such a result, I shall an- 
ticipate with pleasure the place to be assigned me in the his- 
tory of my country, and die contented with the belief that I 



3^0 Andrew Jackson 

have contributed in some small degree to increase the value 
and prolong the duration of American liberty. 

To the end that the resolution of the Senate may not be 
hereafter drawn into precedent with the authority of silent 
acquiescence on the part of the executive department, and 
to the end also that my motives and views in the Executive 
proceedings denounced in that resolution may be known to 
my fellow-citizens, to the world, and to all posterity, I re- 
spectfully request that this message and protest may be en- 
tered at length on the journals of the Senate. 



I 



Sixth Annual Message.* 

(December i, 1834.) 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives: In performing my duty at the opening of your present 
session it gives me pleasure to congratulate you again upon 
the prosperous condition of our beloved country. Divine 
Providence has favored us with general health, with rich 
rewards in the fields of agriculture and in every branch of 
labor, and with peace to cultivate and extend the various 
resources which employ the virtue and enterprise of our 
citizens. Let us trust that in surveying a scene so flattering 
to our free institutions our joint deliberations to preserve 
them may be crowned with success. 

Our foreign relations continue, with but few exceptions, 
to maintain the favorable aspect which they bore in my last 
annual message, and promise to extend those advantages 
which the principles that regulate our intercourse with other 
nations are so well calculated to secure. 

The question of the northeastern boundary is still pend- 
ing with Great Britain, and the proposition made in accord- 
ance with the resolution of the Senate for the establishment 
of a line according to the treaty of 1783 has not been ac- 
cepted by that Government. Believing that every disposi- 
tion is felt on both sides to adjust this perplexing question 
to the satisfaction of all the parties interested in it, the hope 
is yet indulged that it may be effected on the basis of that 
proposition. 

With the Governments of Austria, Russia, Prussia, Hol- 

* The matters of chief historical interest discussed in this message 
are, (i) foreign affairs; (2) French spohations; (3) the Bank of the 
U. S. ; (4) internal improvements. 

361 



3^2 Andrew Jackson 

land, Sweden, and Denmark the best understanding exists. 
Commerce with all is fostered and protected by reciprocal 
good will under the sanction of liberal conventional or legal 
provisions. 

In the midst of her internal difficulties the Queen of Spain 
has ratified the convention for the payment of the claims 
of our citizens arising since 1819. It is in the course of 
execution on her part, and a copy of it is now laid before 
you for such legislation as may be found necessary to en- 
able those interested to derive the benefits of it. 

Yielding to the force of circumstances and to the wise 
counsels of time and experience, that power has finally re- 
solved no longer to occupy the unnatural position in which 
she stood to the new Governments established in this hemi- 
sphere. I have the great satisfaction of stating to you that 
in preparing the way for the restoration of harmony betWeen 
those who have sprung from the same ancestors, who are 
allied by common interests, profess the same religion, and 
speak the same language the United States have been ac- 
tively instrumental. Our efforts to effect this good work 
will be persevered in while they are deemed useful to the 
parties and our entire disinterestedness continues to be felt 
and understood. The act of Congress to countervail the 
discriminating duties to the prejudice of our navigation 
levied in Cuba and Puerto Rico has been transmitted to the 
minister of the United States at Madrid, to be communi- 
cated to the Government of the Queen. No intelligence of 
its receipt has yet reached the Department of State. If the 
present condition of the country permits the Government to 
make a careful and enlarged examination of the true in- 
terests of these important portions of its dominions, no 
doubt is entertained that their future intercourse with the 
United States will be placed upon a more just and liberal 
basis. 

The Florida archives have not yet been selected and de- 
livered. Recent orders have been sent to the agent of the 
United States at Havana to return with all that he can ob- 
tain, so that they may be in Washington before the session 



Sixth Annual Message 363 

of the Supreme Court, to be used in the legal questions there 
pending to which the Government is a party. 

Internal tranquillity is happily restored to Portugal. The 
distracted state of the country rendered unavoidable the 
postponement of a final payment of the just claims of our 
citizens. Our diplomatic relations will be soon resumed, 
and the long-subsisting friendship with that power affords 
the strongest guaranty that the balance due will receive 
prompt attention. 

The first installment due under the convention of indem- 
nity with the King of the Two Sicilies has been duly re- 
ceived, and an offer has been made to extinguish the whole 
by a prompt payment — an offer I did not consider myself 
authorized to accept, as the indemnification provided is the 
exclusive property of individual citizens of the United 
States. The original adjustment of our claims and the 
anxiety displayed to fulfill at once the stipulations made for 
the payment of them are highly honorable to the Govern- 
ment of the Two Sicilies. When it is recollected that they 
were the result of the injustice of an intrusive power tem- 
porarily dominant in its territory, a repugnance to acknowl- 
edge and to pay which would have been neither unnatural 
nor unexpected, the circumstances can not fail to exalt its 
character for justice and good faith in the eyes of all na- 
tions. 

The treaty of amity and commerce between the United 
States and Belgium, brought to your notice in my last an- 
nual message as sanctioned by the Senate, but the ratifica- 
tions of which had not been exchanged owing to a delay in 
its reception at Brussels and a subsequent absence of the Bel- 
gian minister of foreign affairs, has been, after mature 
deliberation, finally disavowed by that Government as incon- 
sistent with the powers and instructions given to their min- 
ister who negotiated it. This disavowal was entirely unex- 
pected, as the liberal principles embodied in the convention, 
and which form the groundwork of the objections to it, 
were perfectly satisfactory to the Belgian representative, 
and were supposed to be not only within the powers 



3^4 Andrew Jackson 

granted, but expressly conformable to the instructions given 
to him. An offer, not yet accepted, has been made by Bel- 
gium to renew negotiations for a treaty less liberal in its 
provisions on questions of general maritime law. 

Our newly established relations with the Sublime Porte 
promise to be useful to our commerce and satisfactory in 
every respect to this Government. Our intercourse with 
the Barbary Powers continues without important change, 
except that the present political state of Algiers has in- 
duced me to terminate the residence there of a salaried con- 
sul and to substitute an ordinary consulate, to remain so 
long as the place continues in the possession of France. Our 
first treaty with one of these powers, the Emperor of Mo- 
rocco, was formed in 1786, and was limited to fifty years. 
That period has almost expired. I shall take measures to 
renew it with the greater satisfaction as its stipulations are 
just and liberal and have been, with mutual fidelity and re- 
ciprocal advantage, scrupulously fulfilled. 

Intestine dissensions have too frequently occurred to mar 
the prosperity, interrupt the commerce, and distract the 
governments of most of the nations of this hemisphere 
which have separated themselves from Spain. When a firm 
and permanent understanding with the parent country shall 
have produced a formal acknowledgment of their independ- 
ence, and the idea of danger from that quarter can be no 
longer entertained, the friends of freedom expect that those 
countries, so favored by nature, will be distinguished for 
their love of justice and their devotion to those peaceful 
arts the assiduous cultivation of which confers honor upon 
nations and gives value to human life. In the meantime I 
confidently hope that the apprehensions entertained that 
some of the people of these luxuriant regions may be 
tempted, in a moment of unworthy distrust of their own 
capacity for the enjoyment of liberty, to commit the too 
common error of purchasing present repose by bestowing 
on some favorite leaders the fatal gift of irresponsible power 
will not be realized. With all these Governments and with 
that of Brazil no unexpected changes in our relations have 



Sixth Annual Message 365 

occurred during the present year. Frequent causes of just 
complaint have arisen upon the part of the citizens of the 
United States, sometimes from the irregular action of the 
constituted subordinate authorities of the maritime regions 
and sometimes from the leaders of partisans of those in 
arms against the established Governments. In all cases 
representations have been or will be made, and as soon as 
their political affairs are in a settled position it is expected 
that our friendly remonstrances will be followed by ade- 
quate redress. 

The Government of Mexico made known in December 
last the appointment of commissioners and a surveyor on its 
part to run, in conjunction with ours, the boundary line be- 
tween its territories and the United States, and excused the 
delay for the reasons anticipated — the prevalence of civil 
war. The commissioners and surveyors not having met 
within the time stipulated by the treaty, a new arrangement 
became necessary, and our charge d'affaires was instructed 
in January last to negotiate in Mexico an article additional 
to the preexisting treaty. This instruction was acknowl- 
edged, and no difficulty was apprehended in the accomplish- 
ment of that object. By information just received that 
additional article to the treaty will be obtained and trans- 
mitted to this country as soon as it can receive the ratification 
of the Mexican Congress. 

The reunion of the three States of New Granada, Ven- 
ezuela, and Equador, forming the Republic of Colombia, 
seems every day to become more improbable. The commis- 
sioners of the two first are understood to be now negotiat- 
ing a just division of the obligations contracted by them 
when united under one government. The civil war in Equa- 
dor, it is believed, has prevented even the appointment of a 
commissioner on its part. 

I propose at an early date to submit, in the proper form, 
the appointment of a diplomatic agent to Venezuela, the im- 
portance of the commerce of that country to the United 
States and the large claims of our citizens upon the Gov- 
ernment arising before and since the division of Colombia 



3^^ Andrew Jackson 

rendering it, in my judgment, improper longer to delay 
this step. 

Our representatives to Central America, Peru, and Bra- 
zil are either at or on their way to their respective posts. 

From the Argentine Republic, from which a minister was 
expected to this Government, nothing further has been 
heard. Occasion has been taken on the departure of a new 
consul to Buenos Ayres to remind that Government that its 
long-delayed minister, whose appointment had been made 
known to us, had not arrived. 

It becomes my unpleasant duty to inform you that this 
pacific and highly gratifying picture of our foreign rela- 
tions does not include those with France at this time. It is 
not possible that any Government and people could be more 
sincerely desirous of conciliating a just and friendly inter- 
course with another nation than are those of the United 
States with their ancient ally and friend. This disposition 
is founded as well on the most grateful and honorable rec- 
ollections associated with our struggle for independence as 
upon a well-grounded conviction that it is consonant with 
the true policy of both. The people of the United States 
could not, therefore, see without the deepest regret even a 
temporary interruption of the friendly relations between the 
two countries — a regret which would, I am sure, be greatly 
aggravated if there should turn out to be any reasonable 
ground for attributing such a result to any act of omission 
or commission on our part. I derive, therefore, the highest 
satisfaction from being able to assure you that the whole 
course of this Government has been characterized by a spirit 
so conciliatory and forbearing as to make it impossible that 
our justice and moderation should be questioned, whatever 
may be the consequences of a longer perseverance on the 
part of the French Government in her omission to satisfy 
the conceded claims of our citizens. 

The history of the accumulated and unprovoked aggres- 
sions upon our commerce committed by authority of the 
existing Governments of France between the years 1800 and 
181 7 has been rendered too painfully familiar to Ameri- 



Sixth Annual Message 367 

cans to make its repetition either necessary or desirable. It 
will be sufficient here to remark that there has for many 
years been scarcely a single administration of the French 
Government by whom the justice and legality of the claims 
of our citizens to indemnity were not to a very considerable 
extent admitted, and yet near a quarter of a century has 
been wasted in ineffectual negotiations to secure it. 

Deeply sensible of the injurious effects resulting from 
this state of things upon the interests and character of both 
nations, I regarded it as among my first duties to cause one 
more effort to be made to satisfy France that a just and 
liberal settlement of our claims was as well due to her own 
honor as to their incontestable validity. The negotiation 
for this purpose was commenced with the late Government 
of France, and was prosecuted with such success as to leave 
no reasonable ground to doubt that a settlement of a charac- 
ter quite as liberal as that which was subsequently made 
would have been effected had not. the revolution by which 
the negotiation was cut off taken place. The discussions 
were resumed with the present Government, and the result 
showed that we were not wrong in supposing that an event 
by which the two Governments were made to approach 
each other so much nearer in their political principles, and 
by which the motives for the most liberal and friendly in- 
tercourse were so greatly multiplied, could exercise no other 
than a salutary influence upon the negotiation. After the 
most deliberate and thorough examination of the whole 
subject a treaty between the two Governments was con- 
cluded and signed at Paris on the 4th of July, 183 1, by 
which it was stipulated that " the French Government, in 
order to liberate itself from all the reclamations preferred 
against it by citizens of the United States for unlawful 
seizures, captures, sequestrations, confiscations, or destruc- 
tion of their vessels, cargoes, or other property, engages to 
pay a sum of 25,000,000 francs to the United States, who 
shall distribute it among those entitled in the manner and 
according to the rules it shall determine;" and it was also 
stipulated on the part of the French Government that this 



3^S Andrew Jackson 

25,000,000 francs should " be paid at Paris, in six annual 
installments of 4,166,666 francs and 66 centimes each, into 
the hands of such person or persons as shall be authorized 
by the Government of the United States to receive it," the 
first installment to be paid " at the expiration of one year 
next following the exchange of the ratifications of this 
convention and the others at successive intervals of a year, 
one after another, till the whole shall be paid. To the 
amount of each of the said installments shall be added in- 
terest at 4 per cent thereupon, as upon the other installments 
then remaining unpaid, the said interest to be computed 
from the day of the exchange of the present convention." 
It was also stipulated on the part of the United States, for 
the purpose of being completely liberated from all the rec- 
lamations presented by France on behalf of its citizens, that 
the sum of 1,500,000 francs should be paid to the Govern- 
ment of France in six annual installments, to be deducted 
out of the annual sums which France had agreed to pay, 
interest thereupon being in like manner computed from the 
day of the exchange of the ratifications. In addition to this 
stipulation, important advantages were secured to France 
by the following article, viz. : 

The wines of France, from and after the exchange of the 
ratifications of the present convention, shall be admitted to 
consumption in the States of the Union at duties which shall 
not exceed the following rates by the gallon (such as it is 
used at present for wines in the United States), to wit: 6 
cents for red wines in casks; 10 cents for white wines in 
casks, and 22 cents for wines of all sorts in bottles. The 
proportions existing between the duties on French wines 
thus reduced and the general rates of the tariff which went 
into operation the ist January, 1829, shall be maintained in 
case the Government of the United States should think 
proper to diminish those general rates in a new tariff. 

In consideration of this stipulation, which shall be binding 
on the United States for ten years, the French Government 
abandons the reclamations which it had formed in relation 
to the eighth article of the treaty of cession of Louisiana. 



fi 



sixth Annual Message 369 

It engages, moreover, to establish on the long-staple cottons 
of the United States which after the exchange of the ratifi- 
cations of the present convention shall be brought directly 
thence to France by the vessels of the United States or by 
French vessels the same duties as on short-staple cottons. 

This treaty was duly ratified in the manner prescribed by 
the constitutions of both countries, and the ratification was 
exchanged at the city of Washington on the 2d of Febru- 
ary, 1832. On account of its commercial stipulations it 
was in five days thereafter laid before the Congress of the 
United States, which proceeded to enact such laws favor- 
able to the commerce of France as were necessary to carry 
it into full execution, and France has from that period to 
the present been in the unrestricted enjoyment of the valu- 
able privileges that were thus secured to her. The faith of 
the French nation having been thus solemnly pledged 
through its constitutional organ for the liquidation and ulti- 
mate payment of the long-deferred claims of our citizens, 
as also for the adjustment of other points of great and re- 
ciprocal benefits to both countries, and the United States 
having, with a fidelity and promptitude by which their con- 
duct will, I trust, be always characterized, done everything 
that was necessary to carry the treaty into full and fair ef- 
fect on their part, counted with the most perfect confidence 
on equal fidelity and promptitude on the part of the French 
Government. In this reasonable expectation we have been, 
I regret to inform you, wholly disappointed. No legislative 
provision has been made by France for the execution of the 
treaty, either as it respects the indemnity to be paid or the 
commercial benefits to be secured to the United States, and 
the relations between the United States and that power in 
consequence thereof are placed in a situation threatening to 
interrupt the good understanding which has so long and so 
happily existed between the two nations. 

Not only has the French Government been thus wanting 
in the performance of the stipulations it has so solemnly en- 
tered into with the United States, but its omissions have 



37° Andrew Jackson 

been marked by circumstances which would seem to leave us 
without satisfactory evidences that such performance will 
certainly take place at a future period. Advice of the ex- 
change of ratifications reached Paris prior to the 8th April, 
1832. The French Chambers were then sitting, and con- 
tinued in session until the 21st of that month, and although 
one installment of the indemnity was payable on the 2d 
of February, 1833, one year after the exchange of ratifica- 
tions, no application was made to the Chambers for the re- 
quired appropriation, and in consequence of no appropria- 
tion having then been made the draft of the United States 
Government for that installment was dishonored by the 
minister of finance, and the United States thereby involved 
in much controversy. The next session of the Chambers 
commenced on the 19th November, 1832, and continued 
until the 25th April, 1833. Notwithstanding the omission 
to pay the first installment had been made the subject of 
earnest remonstrance on our part, the treaty with the 
United States and a bill making the necessary appropria- 
tions to execute it were not laid before the Chamber of 
Deputies until the 6th of April, nearly five months after 
its meeting, and only nineteen days before the close of the 
session. The bill was read and referred to a committee, but 
there was no further action upon it. The next session of 
the Chambers commenced on the 26th of April, 1833, and 
continued until the 26th of June following. A new bill was 
introduced on the nth of June, but nothing important was 
done in relation to it during the session. In the month of 
April, 1834, nearly three years after the signature of the 
treaty, the final action of the French Chambers upon the bill 
to carry the treaty into effect was obtained, and resulted in 
a refusal of the necessary appropriations. The avowed 
grounds upon which the bill was rejected are to be found in 
the published debates of that body, and no observations of 
mine can be necessary to satisfy Congress of their utter in- 
sufficiency. Although the gross amount of the claims of 
our citizens is probably greater than will be ultimately al- 
lowed by the commissioners, sufficient is, nevertheless, 



!■•' 



f 



sixth Annual Message 37 ^ 

shown to render it absolutely certain that the indemnity falls 
far short of the actual amount of our just claims, inde- 
pendently of the question of damages and interest for the 
detention. That the settlement involved a sacrifice in this 
respect was well known at the time — a sacrifice which was 
cheerfully acquiesced in by the different branches of the 
Federal Government, whose action upon the treaty was re- 
quired from a sincere desire to avoid further collision upon 
this old and disturbing subject and in the confident ex- 
pectation that the general relations between the two coun- 
tries would be improved thereby. 

The refusal to vote the appropriation, the news of which 
was received from our minister in Paris about the 15th 
day of May last, might have been considered the final de- 
termination of the French Government not to execute the 
stipulations of the treaty, and would have justified an im- 
mediate communication of the facts to Congress, with a 
recommendation of such ultimate measures as the interest 
and honor of the United States might seem to require. But 
with the news of the refusal of the Chambers to make the 
appropriation were conveyed the regrets of the King and a 
declaration that a national vessel should be forthwith sent 
out with instructions to the French minister to give the 
most ample explanations of the past and the strongest as- 
surances for the future. After a long passage the promised 
dispatch vessel arrived. The pledges given by the French 
minister upon receipt of his instructions were that as soon 
after the election of the new members as the charter would 
permit the legislative Chambers of France should be called 
together and the proposition for an appropriation laid be- 
fore them; that all the constitutional powers of the King 
and his cabinet should be exerted to accomplish the object, 
and that the result should be made known early enough to 
be communicated to Congress at the commencement of the 
present session. Relying upon these pledges, and not doubt- 
ing that the acknowledged justice of our claims, the prom- 
ised exertions of the King and his cabinet, and. above all. 
that sacred regard for the national faith and honor for 



37^ Andrew Jackson 

which the French character has been so distinguished would 
secure an early execution of the treaty in all its parts, I 
did not deem it necessary to call the attention of Congress 
to the subject at the last session. 

I regret to say that the pledges made through the min- 
ister of France have not been redeemed. The new Cham- 
bers met on the 31st July last, and although the subject of 
fulfilling treaties was alluded to in the speech from the 
throne, no attempt was made by the King or his cabinet to 
procure an appropriation to carry it into execution. The 
reasons given for this omission, although they might be con- 
sidered sufficient in an ordinary case, are not consistent with 
the expectations founded upon the assurances given here, 
for there is no constitutional obstacle to entering into leg- 
islative business at the first meeting of the Chambers. This 
point, however, might have been overlooked had not the 
Chambers, instead of being called to meet at so early a day 
that the result of their deliberations might be communi- 
cated to me before the meeting of Congress, been prorogued 
to the 29th of the present month — a period so late that their 
decision can scarcely be made known to the present Con- 
gress prior to its dissolution. To avoid this delay our min- 
ister in Paris, in virtue of the assurance given by the French 
minister in the United States, strongly urged the convoca- 
tion of the Chambers at an earlier day, but without success. 
It is proper to remark, however, that this refusal has been 
accompanied with the most positive assurances on the part 
of the executive government of France of their intention to 
press the appropriation at the ensuing session of the Cham- 
bers. 

The executive branch of this Government has, as matters 
stand, exhausted all the authority upon the subject with 
which it is invested and which it had any reason to believe 
could be beneficially employed. 

The idea of acquiescing in the refusal to execute the 
treaty will not, I am confident, be for a moment entertained 
by any branch of this Government, and further negotiation 
upon the subject is equally out of the question. 



Sixth Annual Message 373 

If it shall be the pleasure of Congress to await the further 
action of the French Chambers, no further consideration of 
the subject will at this session probably be required at your 
hands. But if from the original delay in asking for an ap- 
propriation, from the refusal of the Chambers to grant it 
when asked, from the omission to bring the subject before 
the Chambers at their last session, from the fact that, in- 
cluding that session, there have been five different occasions 
when the appropriation might have been made, and from 
the delay in convoking the Chambers until some weeks 
after the meeting of Congress, when it was well known that 
a communication of the whole subject to Congress at the 
last session was prevented by assurances that it should be 
disposed of before its present meeting, you should feel your- 
selves constrained to doubt whether it be the intention of 
the French Government, in all its branches, to carry the 
treaty into effect, and think that such measures as the oc- 
casion may be deemed to call for should be now adopted, 
the important question arises what those measures shall be. 

Our institutions are essentially pacific. Peace and 
friendly intercourse with all nations are as much the desire 
of our Government as they are the interest of our people. 
But these objects are not to be permanently secured by sur- 
rendering the rights of our citizens or permitting solemn 
treaties for their indemnity, in cases of flagrant wrong, to be 
abrogated or set aside. 

It is undoubtedly in the power of Congress seriously to 
affect the agricultural and manufacturing interests of France 
by the passage of laws relating to her trade with the United 
States. Her products, manufactures, and tonnage may be 
subjected to heavy duties in our ports, or all commercial 
intercourse with her may be suspended. But there are pow- 
erful and to my mind conclusive objections to this mode of 
proceeding. We can not embarrass or cut off the trade of 
France without at the same time in some degree embar- 
rassing or cutting off our own trade. The injury of such a 
warfare must fall, though unequally, upon our own citizens, 
and could not but impair the means of the Government and 



374 Andrew Jackson 

weaken that united sentiment in support of the rights and 
honor of the nation which must now pervade every bosom. 
Nor is it impossible that such a course of legislation would 
introduce once more into our national councils those dis- 
turbing questions in relation to the tariff of duties which 
have been so recently put to rest. Besides, by every meas- 
ure adopted by the Government of the United States with 
the view of injuring France the clear perception of right 
which will induce our own people and the rulers and people 
of all other nations, even of France herself, to pronounce 
our quarrel just will be obscured and the support rendered to 
us in a final resort to more decisive measures will be more 
limited and equivocal. There is but one point in the con- 
troversy, and upon that the whole civilized world must pro- 
nounce France to be in the wrong. We insist that she shall 
pay us a sum of money which she has acknowledged to be 
due, and of the justice of this demand there can be but 
one opinion among mankind. True policy would seem to 
dictate that the question at issue should be kept thus dis- 
encumbered and that not the slightest pretense should be 
given to France to persist in her refusal to make payment 
by any act on our part affecting the interests of her people. 
The question should be left, as it is now, in such an atti- 
tude that when France fulfills her treaty stipulations all 
controversy will be at an end. 

It is my conviction that the United States ought to in- 
sist on a prompt execution of the treaty, and in case it be 
refused or longer delayed take redress into their own hands. 
After the delay on the part of France of a quarter of a 
century in acknowledging these claims by treaty, it is not to 
be tolerated that another quarter of a century is to be wasted 
in negotiating about the payment. The laws of nations pro- 
vide a remedy for such occasions. It is a well-settled prin- 
ciple of the international code that where one nation owes 
another a liquidated debt which it refuses or neglects to pay 
the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging 
to the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the 
debt without giving just cause of war. This remedy has 



Sixth Annual Message 375 

been repeatedly resorted to, and recently by France her- 
self toward Portugal, under circumstances less unquestion- 
able. 

The time at which resort should be had to this or any 
other mode of redress is a point to be decided by Congress. 
If an appropriation shall not be made by the French Cham- 
bers at their next session, it may justly be concluded that 
the Government of France has finally determined to disre- 
gard its own solemn undertaking and refuse to pay an ac- 
knowledged debt. In that event every day's delay on our 
part will be a stain upon our national honor, as well as a 
denial of justice to our injured citizens. Prompt measures, 
when the refusal of France shall be complete, will not only 
be most honorable and just, but will have the best effect 
upon our national character. 

Since France, in violation of the pledges given through 
her minister here, has delayed her final action so long that 
her decision will not probably be known in time to be com- 
municated to this Congress, I recommend that a law be 
passed authorizing reprisals upon French property in case 
provision shall not be made for the payment of the debt at 
the approaching session of the French Chambers. Such a 
measure ought not to be considered by France as a menace. 
Her pride and power are too well known to expect any- 
thing from her fears and preclude the necessity of a declara- 
tion that nothing partaking of the character of intimidation 
is intended by us. She ought to look upon it as the evi- 
dence only of an inflexible determination on the part of the 
United States to insist on their rights. That Government, 
by doing only what it has itself acknowledged to be just, 
will be able to spare the United States the necessity of 
taking redress into their own hands and save the property 
of French citizens from that seizure and sequestration which 
American citizens so long endured without retaliation or 
redress. If she should continue to refuse that act of ac- 
knowledged justice and, in violation of the law of nations, 
make reprisals on our part the occasion of hostilities against 
the United States, she would but add violence to injustice, 



37^ Andrew Jackson 

and could not fail to expose herself to the just censure of 
civilized nations and to the retributive judgments of 
Heaven. 

Collision with France is the more to be regretted on ac- 
count of the position she occupies in Europe in relation to 
liberal institutions, but in maintaining our national rights 
and honor all governments are alike to us. If by a collision 
with France in a case where she is clearly in the wrong 
the march of liberal principles shall be impeded, the re- 
sponsibility for that result as well as every other will rest 
on her own head. 

Having submitted these considerations, it belongs to 
Congress to decide whether after what has taken place it 
wmII still await the further action of the French Chambers 
or now adopt such provisional measures as it may deem 
necessary and best adapted to protect the rights and main- 
tain the honor of the country. Whatever that decision may 
be, it will be faithfully enforced by the Executive as far as 
he is authorized so to do. 

According to the estimate of the Treasury Department, 
the revenue accruing from all sources during the present 
year will amount to $20,624,717, which, with the balance 
remaining in the Treasury on the ist of January last of 
$11,702,905, produces an aggregate of $32,327,623. The 
total expenditure during the year for all objects, including 
the public debt, is estimated at $25,591,390, which will leave 
a balance in the Treasury on the ist of January, 1835, of 
$6,736,232. In this balance, however, will be included 
about $1,150,000 of what was heretofore reported by the 
Department as not effective. 

Of former appropriations it is estimated that there will 
remain unexpended at the close of the year $8,002,925. and 
that of this sum there will not be required more than $5,- 
141,964 to accomplish the objects of all the current appro- 
priations. Thus it appears that after satisfying all those 
appropriations and after discharging the last item of our 
public debt, which will be done on the ist of January next, 
there will remain unexpended in the Treasury an effective 



Sixth Annual Message 377 

balance of about $440,000. That such should be the aspect 
of our finances is highly flattering to the industry and enter- 
prise of our population and auspicious of the wealth and 
prosperity which await the future cultivation of their grow- 
ing resources. It is not deemed prudent, however, to rec- 
ommend any change for the present in our impost rates, 
the effect of the gradual reduction now in progress in many 
of them not being sufficiently tested to guide us in deter- 
mining the precise amount of revenue which they will pro- 
duce. 

Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and^- 
with no complicated interests to consult in our intercourse 
with foreign powers, the present may be hailed as the epoch 
in our history the most favorable for the settlement of those 
principles in our domestic policy which shall be best cal- 
culated to give stability to our Republic and secure the 
blessings of freedom to our citizens. .^ 

Among these principles, from our past experience, it can 
not be doubted that simplicity in the character of the Fed- 
eral Government and a rigid economy in its administra- 
tion should be regarded as fundamental and sacred. All 
must be sensible that the existence of the public debt, by 
rendering taxation necessary for its extinguishment, has 
increased the difficulties which are inseparable from every 
exercise of the taxing power, and that it was in this respect 
a remote agent in producing those disturbing questions 
which grew out of the discussions relating to the tariff. 
If such has been the tendency of a debt incurred in the ac- 
quisition and maintenance of our national rights and lib- 
erties, the obligations of which all portions of the Union 
cheerfully acknowledged, it must be obvious that whatever 
is calculated to increase the burdens of Government without 
necessity must be fatal to all our hopes of preserving its 
true character. While we are felicitating ourselves, there- 
fore, upon the extinguishment of the national debt and the 
prosperous state of our finances, let us not be tempted to 
depart from those sound maxims of public policy which en- 
join a just adaptation of the revenue to the expenditures 



37^ Andrew Jackson 

that are consistent with a rigid economy and an entire ab- 
stinence from all topics of legislation that are not clearly 
within the constitutional powers of the Government and 
suggested by the wants of the country. Properly regarded 
under such a policy, every diminution of the public burdens 
arising from taxation gives to individual enterprise in- 
creased power and furnishes to all the members of our 
happy Confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and 
support. But above all, its most important effect will be 
found in its influence upon the character of the Government 
by confining its action to those objects which will be sure to 
secure to it the attachment and support of our fellow- 
citizens. 

Circumstances make it my duty to call the attention of 
Congress to the Bank of the United States. Created for the 
convenience of the Government, that institution has become 
the scourge of the people. Its interference to postpone the 
payment of a portion of the national debt that it might re- 
tain the public money appropriated for that purpose to 
strengthen it in a political contest, the extraordinary exten- 
sion and contraction of its accommodations to the commu- 
nity, its corrupt and partisan loans, its exclusion of the 
public directors from a knowledge of its most important 
proceedings, the unlimited authority conferred on the presi- 
dent to expend its funds in hiring writers and procuring 
the execution of printing, and the use made of that author- 
ity, the retention of the pension money and books after the 
selection of new agents, the groundless claim to heavy dam- 
ages in consequence of the protest of the bill drawn on the 
French Government, have through various channels been 
laid before Congress. Immediately after the close of the 
last session the bank, through its president, announced its 
ability and readiness to abandon the system of unparalleled 
curtailment and the interruption of domestic exchanges 
which it had practiced upon from the ist of August, 1833, 
to the 30th of June, 1834, and to extend its accommodations 
to the community. The grounds assumed in this annuncia- 
tion amounted to an acknowledgment that the curtailment. 



Sixth Annual Message 379 

in the extent to which it had been carried, was not neces- 
sary to the safety of the bank, and had been persisted in 
merely to induce Congress to grant the prayer of the bank 
in its memorial relative to the removal of the deposits and 
to give it a new charter. They were substantially a con- 
fession that all the real distresses which individuals and 
the country had endured for the preceding six or eight 
months had been needlessly produced by it, with the view of 
affecting through the sufferings of the people the legislative 
action of Congress. It is a subject of congratulation that 
Congress and the country had the virtue and firmness to 
bear the infliction, that the energies of our people soon 
found relief from this wanton tyranny in vast importations 
of the precious metals from almost every part of the world, 
and that at the close of this tremendous effort to control 
our Government the bank found itself powerless and no 
longer able to loan out its surplus means. The community 
had learned to manage its affairs without its assistance, and 
trade had already found new auxiliaries, so that on the ist 
of October last the extraordinary spectacle was presented of 
a national bank more than one-half of whose capital was 
either lying unproductive in its vaults or in the hands of 
foreign bankers. 

To the needless distresses brought on the country during 
the last session of Congress has since been added the open 
seizure of the dividends on the public stock to the amount 
of $170,041, under pretense of paying damages, cost, and 
interest upon the protested French bill. This sum consti- 
tuted a portion of the estimated revenues for the year 1834, 
upon which the appropriations made by Congress were 
based. It would as soon have been expected that our collec- 
tors would seize on the customs or the receivers of our land 
offices on the moneys arising from the sale of public lands 
under pretenses of claims against the United States as that 
the bank would have retained the dividends. Indeed, if the 
principle be established that anyone who chooses to set up 
a claim against the United States may without authority 
of law seize on the public property or money wherever he 



380 Andrew Jackson 

can find it to pay such claim, there will remain no assurance 
that our revenue will reach the Treasury or that it will be 
applied after the appropriation to the purposes designated in 
the law. The paymasters of our Army and the pursers of 
our Navy may under like pretenses apply to their own use 
moneys appropriated to set in motion the public force, and 
in time of war leave the country without defense. This 
measure resorted to by the bank is disorganizing and rev- 
olutionary, and if generally resorted to by private citizens 
in like cases would fill the land with anarchy and violence. 

It is a constitutional provision " that no money shall be 
drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropri- 
ations made by law." The palpable object of this provision 
is to prevent the expenditure of the public money for any 
purpose whatsoever which shall not have been first approved 
by the representatives of the people and the States in Con- 
gress assembled. It vests the power of declaring for what 
purposes the public money shall be expended in the legis- 
lative department of the Government, to the exclusion of 
the executive and judicial, and it is not within the consti- 
tutional authority of either of those departments to pay it 
away without law or to sanction its payment. According 
to this plain constitutional provision, the claim of the bank 
can never be paid without an appropriation by act of Con- 
gress. But the bank has never asked for an appropriation. 
It attempts to defeat the provision of the Constitution and 
obtain payment without an act of Congress. Instead of 
awaiting an appropriation passed by both Houses and ap- 
proved by the President, it makes an appropriation for it- 
self and invites an appeal to the judiciary to sanction it. 
That the money had not technically been paid into the 
Treasury does not affect the principle intended to be estab- 
lished by the Constitution. The Executive and the judiciary 
have as little right to appropriate and expend the public 
money without authority of law before it is placed to the 
credit of the Treasury as to take it from the Treasury. In 
the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury, and in 
his correspondence with the president of the bank, and the 



Sixth Annual Message 381 

opinions of the Attorney-General accompanying it, you will 
find a further examination of the claims of the bank and the 
course it has pursued. 

It seems due to the safety of the public funds remaining 
in that bank and to the honor of the American people that 
measures be taken to separate the Government entirely from 
an institution so mischievous to the public prosperity and 
so regardless of the Constitution and laws. By transfer- 
ring the public deposits, by appointing other pension agents 
as far as it had the power, by ordering the discontinuance of 
the receipt of bank checks in the payment of the public dues 
after the ist day of January, the Executive has exerted all 
its lawful authority to sever the connection between the 
Government and this faithless corporation. 

The high-handed career of this institution imposes upon 
the constitutional functionaries of this Government duties 
of the gravest and most imperative character — duties which 
they can not avoid and from which I trust there will be no 
inclination on the part of any of them to shrink. My own 
sense of them is most clear, as is also my readiness to dis- 
charge those which may rightfully fall on me. To continue 
any business relations with the Bank of the United States 
that may be avoided without a violation of the national faith 
after that institution has set at open defiance the conceded 
right of the Government to examine its affairs, after it has 
done all in its power to deride the public authority in other 
respects and to bring it into disrepute at home and abroad, 
after it has attempted to defeat the clearly expressed will of 
the people by turning against them the immense power in- 
trusted to its hands and by involving a country otherwise 
peaceful, flourishing, and happy, in dissension, embarrass- 
ment, and distress, would make the nation itself a party to 
the degradation so sedulously prepared for its public agents 
and do much to destroy the confidence of mankind in popu- 
lar governments and to bring into contempt their authority 
and efficiency. In guarding against an evil of such magni- 
tude considerations of temporary convenience should be 
thrown out of the question, and we should be influenced by 



3^2 Andrew Jackson 

such motives only as look to the honor and preservation of 
the republican system. Deeply and solemnly impressed with 
the justice of these views, I feel it to be my duty to recom- 
mend to you that a law be passed authorizing the sale of the 
public stock ; that the provision of the charter requiring the 
receipt of notes of the bank in payment of public dues shall, 
in accordance with the power reserved to Congress in the 
fourteenth section of the charter, be suspended until the bank 
pays to the Treasury the dividends withheld, and that all 
laws connecting the Government or its officers with the bank, 
directly or indirectly, be repealed, and that the institution be 
left hereafter to its own resources and means. 

Events have satisfied my mind, and I think the minds of 
the American people, that the mischiefs and dangers which 
flow from a national bank far overbalance all its advantages. 
The bold effort the present bank has made to control the 
Government, the distresses it has wantonly produced, the 
violence of which it has been the occasion in one of our 
cities famed for its observance of law and order, are but 
premonitions of the fate which awaits the American people 
should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution 
or the establishment of another like it. It is fervently hoped 
that thus admonished those who have heretofore favored the 
establishment of a substitute for the present bank will be 
induced to abandon it, as it is evidently better to incur any 
inconvenience that may be reasonably expected than to con- 
centrate the whole moneyed power of the Republic in any 
form whatsoever or under any restrictions. 

Happily it is already illustrated that the agency of such 
an institution is not necessary to the fiscal operations of the 
Government. . The State banks are found fully adequate to 
the performance of all services which were required of the 
Bank of the United States, quite as promptly and with the 
same cheapness. They have maintained themselves and dis- 
charged all these duties while the Bank of the United States 
was still powerful and in the field as an open enemy, and it 
is not possible to conceive that they will find greater difficul- 
ties in their operations when that enemy shall cease to exist. 



Sixth Annual Message 383 

The attention of Congress is earnestly invited to the regu- 
lation of the deposits in the State banks by law. Although 
the power now exercised by the executive department in this 
behalf is only such as was uniformly exerted through every 
Administration from the origin of the Government up to 
the establishment of the present bank, yet it is one which is 
susceptible of regulation by law, and therefore ought so to 
be regulated. The power of Congress to direct in what 
places the Treasurer shall keep the moneys in the Treasury 
and to impose restrictions upon the Executive authority in 
relation to their custody and removal is unlimited, and its 
exercise will rather be courted than discouraged by those 
public officers and agents on whom rests the responsibility 
for their safety. It is desirable that as little power as pos- 
sible should be left to the President or the Secretary of the 
Treasury over those institutions, which, being thus freed 
from Executive influence, and without a common head to 
direct their operations, would have neither the temptation 
nor the ability to interfere in the political conflicts of the 
country. Not deriving their charters from the national au- 
thorities, they would never have those inducements to med- 
dle in general elections which have led the Bank of the 
United States to agitate and convulse the country for up- 
ward of two years. 

The progress of our gold coinage is creditable to the offi- 
cers of the Mint, and promises in a short period to furnish 
the country with a sound and portable currency, which will 
much diminish the inconvenience to travelers of the want of 
a general paper currency should the State banks be incapable 
of furnishing it. Those institutions have already shown 
themselves competent to purchase and furnish domestic ex- 
change for the convenience of trade at reasonable rates, and 
not a doubt is entertained that in a short period all the wants 
of the country in bank accommodations and exchange will 
be supplied as promptly and as cheaply as they have hereto- 
fore been by the Bank of the United States. If the several 
States shall be induced gradually to reform their banking 
systems and prohibit the issue of all small notes, we shall in 



3^4 Andrew Jackson 

a few years have a currency as sound and as little liable to 
fluctuations as any other commercial country. 

The report of the Secretary of War, together with the 
accompanying documents from the several bureaus of that 
Department, will exhibit the situation of the various objects 
committed to its administration. 

No event has occurred since your last session rendering 
necessary any movements of the Army, with the exception 
of the expedition of the regiment of dragoons into the terri- 
tory of the wandering and predatory tribes inhabiting the 
western frontier and living adjacent to the Mexican bound- 
ary. These tribes have been heretofore known to us prin- 
cipally by their attacks upon our own citizens and upon other 
Indians entitled to the protection of the United States. It 
became necessary for the peace of the frontiers to check 
these habitual inroads, and I am happy to inform you that 
the object has been effected without the commission of any 
act of hostility. Colonel Dodge and the troops under his 
command have acted with equal firmness and humanity, and 
an arrangement has been made with those Indians which it 
is hoped will assure their permanent pacific relations with 
the United States and the other tribes of Indians upon that 
border. It is to be regretted that the prevalence of sickness 
in that quarter has deprived the country of a number of 
valuable lives, and particularly that General Leavenworth, 
an officer well known, and esteemed for his gallant services 
in the late war and for his subsequent good conduct, has 
fallen a victim to his zeal and exertions in the discharge of 
his duty. 

The Army is in a high state of discipline. Its moral con- 
dition, so far as that is known here, is good, and the various 
branches of the public service are carefully attended to. It 
is amply sufficient under the present organization for pro- 
viding the necessary garrisons for the seaboard and for the 
defense of the internal frontier, and also for preserving the 
elements of military knowledge and for keeping pace with 
those impovements which modern experience is continually 
making. And these objects appear to me to embrace all the 



Sixth Annual Message 385 

legitimate purposes for which a permanent military force 
should be maintained in our country. The lessons of history 
teach us its danger and the tendency which exists to an in- 
crease. This can be best met and averted by a just caution 
on the part of the public itself, and of those who represent 
them in Congress. 

From the duties which devolve on the Engineer Depart- 
ment and upon the topographical engineers, a different or- 
ganization seems to be demanded by the public interest, and 
I recommend the subject to your consideration. 

No important change has during this season taken place 
in the condition of the Indians. Arrangements are in 
progress for the removal of the Creeks, and will soon be for 
the removal of the Seminoles. I regret that the Cherokees 
east of the Mississippi have not yet determined as a com- 
munity to remove. How long the personal causes which 
have heretofore retarded that ultimately inevitable measure 
will continue to operate I am unable to conjecture. It is 
certain, however, that delay will bring with it accumulated 
evils which will render their condition more and more un- 
pleasant. The experience of every year adds to the convic- 
tion that emigration, and that alone, can preserve from 
destruction the remnant of the tribes yet living amongst us. 
The facility with which the necessaries of life are procured 
and the treaty stipulations providing aid for the emigrant 
Indians in their agricultural pursuits and in the important 
concern of education, and their removal from those causes 
which have heretofore depressed all and destroyed many of 
the tribes, can not fail to stimulate their exertions and to 
reward their industry. 

The two laws passed at the last session of Congress on the 
subject of Indian affairs have been carried into effect, and 
detailed instructions for their administration have been 
given. It will be seen by the estimates for the present ses- 
sion that a great reduction will take place in the expenditures 
of the Department in consequence of these laws, and there 
is reason to believe that their operation will be salutary and 
that the colonization of the Indians on the western frontier, 



386 Andrew Jackson 

together with a judicious system of administration, will still 
further reduce the expenses of this branch of the public 
service and at the same time promote its usefulness and 
efficiency. 

Circumstances have been recently developed shov^ing the 
existence of extensive frauds under the various laws grant- 
ing pensions and gratuities for Revolutionary services. It 
is impossible to estimate the amount which may have been 
thus fraudulently obtained from the National Treasury. I 
am satisfied, however, it has been such as to justify a re- 
examination of the system and the adoption of the necessary 
checks in its administration. All will agree that the services 
and sufferings of the remnant of our Revolutionary band 
should be fully compensated ; but while this is done, every 
proper precaution should be taken to prevent the admission 
of fabricated and fraudulent claims. In the present mode 
of proceeding the attestations and certificates of the judicial 
officers of the various States form a considerable portion of 
the checks which are interposed against the commission of 
frauds. These, however, have been and may be fabricated, 
and in such a way as to elude detection at the examining 
offices. And independently of this practical difficulty, it is 
ascertained that these documents are often loosely granted ; 
sometimes even blank certificates have been issued; some- 
times prepared papers have been signed without inquiry, and 
in one instance, at least, the seal of the court has been within 
reach of a person most interested in its improper application. 
It is obvious that under such circumstances no severity of 
administration can check the abuse of the law. And infor- 
mation has from time to time been communicated to the 
Pension Office questioning or denying the right of persons 
placed upon the pension list to the bounty of the country. 
Such cautions are always attended to and examined, but a 
far more general investigation is called for, and I therefore 
recommend, in conformity with the suggestion of the Secre- 
tary of War, that an actual inspection should be made in 
each State into the circumstances and claims of every person 
now drawing a pension. The honest veteran has nothing to 



Sixth Annual Message 3^7 

fear from such a scrutiny, while the fraudulent claimant will 
be detected and the public Treasury relieved to an amount, 
I have reason to believe, far greater than has heretofore been 
suspected. The details of such a plan could be so regulated 
as to interpose the necessary checks without any burdensome 
operation upon the pensioners. The object should be two- 
fold: 

1. To look into the original justice of the claims, so far 
as this can be done under a proper system of regulations, by 
an examination of the claimants themselves and by inquiring 
in the vicinity of their residence into their history and into 
the opinion entertained of their Revolutionary services. 

2. To ascertain in all cases whether the original claimant 
is living, and this by actual personal inspection. 

This measure will, if adopted, be productive, I think, of 
the desired results, and I therefore recommend it to your 
consideration, with the further suggestion that all payments 
should be suspended till the necessary reports are received. 

It will be seen by a tabular statement annexed to the docu- 
ments transmitted to Congress that the appropriations for 
objects connected with the War Department, made at the 
last session, for the service of the year 1834, excluding the 
permanent appropriation for the payment of military gratu- 
ities under the act of June 7, 1832, the appropriation of 
$200,000 for arming and equipping the militia, and the ap- 
propriation of $10,000 for the civilization of the Indians, 
which are not annually renewed, amounted to the sum of 
$9,003,261, and that the estimates of appropriations neces- 
sary for the same branches of service for the year 1835 
amount to the sum of $5,778,964, making a difference in the 
appropriations of the current year over the estimates of the 
appropriations for the next of $3,224,297. 

The principal causes which have operated at this time to 
produce this great difference are shown in the reports and 
documents and in the detailed estimates. Some of these 
causes are accidental and temporary, while others are per- 
manent, and, aided by a just course of administration, may 
continue to operate beneficially upon the public expenditures. 



388 Andrew Jackson 

A just economy, expending where the public service re- 
quires and withholding where it does not, is among the in- 
dispensable duties of the Government. 

I refer you to the accompanying report of the Secretary 
of the Navy and to the documents with it for a full view of 
the operations of that important branch of our service dur- 
ing the present year. It will be seen that the wisdom and 
liberality with which Congress has provided for the gradual 
increase of our navy material have been seconded by a cor- 
responding zeal and fidelity on the part of those to whom 
has been confided the execution of the laws on the subject, 
and that but a short period would be now required to put in 
commission a force large enough for any exigency into 
which the country may be thrown. 

When we reflect upon our position in relation to other 
nations, it must be apparent that in the event of conflicts 
with them we must look chiefly to our Navy for the protec- 
tion of our national rights. The wide seas which separate 
us from other Governments must of necessity be the theater 
on which an enemy will aim to assail us, and unless we are 
prepared to meet him on this element we can not be said to 
possess the power requisite to repel or prevent aggressions. 
We can not, therefore, watch with too much attention this 
arm of our defense, or cherish with too much care the means 
by which it can possess the necessary efficiency and exten- 
sion. To this end our policy has been heretofore wisely 
directed to the constant employment of a force sufficient to 
guard our commerce, and to the rapid accumulation of the 
materials which are necessary to repair our vessels and con- 
struct with ease such new ones as may be required in a state 
of war. 

In accordance with this policy, I recommend to your con- 
sideration the erection of the additional dry dock described 
by the Secretary of the Navy, and also the construction of 
the steam batteries to which he has referred, for the purpose 
of testing their efiicacy as auxiliaries to the system of de- 
fense now in use. 

The report of the Postmaster-General herewith submitted 



Sixth Annual Message 3^9 

exhibits the, condition and prospects of that Department. 
From that document it appears that there was a deficit in the 
funds of the Department at the commencement of the pres- 
ent year beyond its available means of $315,599.98, which 
on the I St July last had been reduced to $268,092.74. It 
appears also that the revenues for the coming year will ex- 
ceed the expenditures about $270,000, which, with the excess 
of revenue which will result from the operations of the cur- 
rent half year, may be expected, independently of any in- 
crease in the gross amount of postages, to supply the entire 
deficit before the end of 1835. But as this calculation is 
based on the gross amount of postages which had accrued 
within the period embraced by the times of striking the bal- 
ances, it is obvious that without a progressive increase in 
the amount of postages the existing retrenchments must be 
persevered in through the year 1836 that the Department 
may accumulate a surplus fund sufficient to place it in a con- 
dition of perfect ease. 

It will be observed that the revenues of the Post-Office 
Department, though they have increased, and their amount 
is above that of any former year, have yet fallen short of 
the estimates more than $100,000. This is attributed in a 
great degree to the increase of free letters growing out of 
the extension and abuse of the franking privilege. There 
has been a gradual increase in the number of executive offices 
to which it has been granted, and by an act passed in March, 
1833, it was extended to members of Congress throughout 
the whole year. It is believed that a revision of the laws 
relative to the franking privilege, with some enactments to 
enforce more rigidly the restrictions under which it is 
granted, would operate beneficially to the country, by en- 
abling the Department at an earlier period to restore the 
mail facilities that have been withdrawn, and to extend them 
more widely, as the growing settlements of the country may 

require. 

To a measure so important to the Government and so 
just to our constituents, who ask no exclusive privileges 
for themselves and are not willing to concede them to 



39° Andrew Jackson 

others, I earnestly recommend the serious attention of 
Congress. 

The importance of the Post-Office Department and the 
magnitude to which it has grown, both in its revenues and 
in its operations, seem to demand its reorganization by law. 
The w^iole of its receipts and disbursements have hitherto 
been left entirely to Executive control and individual dis- 
cretion. The principle is as sound in relation to this as to 
any other Department of the Government, that as little dis- 
cretion should be confided to the executive officer who con- 
trols it as is compatible with its efficiency. It is therefore 
earnestly recommended that it be organized with an auditor 
and treasurer of its own, appointed by the President and 
Senate, who shall be branches of the Treasury Department. 

Your attention is again respectfully invited to the defect 
which exists in the judicial system of the United States. 
Nothing can be more desirable than the uniform operation 
of the Federal judiciary throughout the several States, all 
of which, standing on the same footing as members of the 
Union, have equal rights to the advantages and benefits re- 
sulting from its laws. This object is not attained by the 
judicial acts now in force, because they leave one- fourth of 
the States without circuit courts. 

It is undoubtedly the duty of Congress to place all the 
States on the same footing in this respect, either by the 
creation of an additional number of associate judges or by 
an enlargement of the circuits assigned to those already ap- 
pointed so as to include the new States. Whatever may be 
the difficulty in a proper organization of the judicial system 
so as to secure its efficiency and uniformity in all parts of 
the Union and at the same time to avoid such an increase of 
judges as would encumber the supreme appellate tribunal, 
it should not be allowed to weigh against the great injustice 
which the present operation of the system produces. 

I trust that I may be also pardoned for renewing the 
recommendation I have so often submitted to your attention 
in regard to the mode of electing the President and Vice- 
President of the United States. All the reflection I have 



Sixth Annual Message 39 ^ 

been able to bestow upon the subject increases my convic- 
tion that the best interests of the country will be promoted 
by the adoption of some plan which will secure in all con- 
tingencies that important right of sovereignty to the direct 
control of the people. Could this be attained, and the terms 
of those officers be limited to a single period of either four 
or six years, I think our liberties would possess an addi- 
tional safeguard. 

At your last session I called the attention of Congress to 
the destruction of the public building occupied by the Treas- 
ury Department. As the public interest requires that another 
building should be erected with as little delay as possible, it 
is hoped that the means will be seasonably provided and that 
they will be ample enough to authorize such an enlargement 
and improvement in the plan of the building as will more 
effectually accommodate the public officers and secure the 
public documents deposited in it from the casualties of fire. 

I have not been able to satisfy myself that the bill entitled 
" An act to improve the navigation of the Wabash River," 
which was sent to me at the close of your last session, ought 
to pass, and I have therefore withheld from it my approval 
and now return it to the Senate, the body in which it orig- 
inated. 

There can be no question connected with the administra- 
tion of public affairs more important or more difficult to be 
satisfactorily dealt with than that which relates to the right- 
ful authority and proper action of the Federal Government 
upon the subject of internal improvements. To inherent 
embarrassments have been added others resulting from the 
course of our legislation concerning it. 

I have heretofore communicated freely with Congress 
upon this subject, and in adverting to it again I can not 
refrain from expressing my increased conviction of its ex- 
treme importance as well in regard to its bearing upon the 
maintenance of the Constitution and the prudent manage- 
ment of the public revenue as on account of its disturbmg 
effect upon the harmony of the Union. 

We are in no danger from violations of the Constitution 



392 Andrew Jackson 

by which encroachments are made upon the personal rights 
of the citizen. The sentence of condemnation long since 
pronounced by the American people upon acts of that char- 
acter will, I doubt not, continue to prove as salutary in its 
effects as it is irreversible in its nature. But against the 
dangers of unconstitutional acts which, instead of menacing 
the vengeance of offended authority, proffer local advan- 
tages and bring in their train the patronage of the Govern- 
ment, we are, I fear, not so safe. To suppose that because 
our Government has been instituted for the benefit of the 
people it must therefore have the power to do whatever may 
seem to conduce to the public good is an error into which 
even honest minds are too apt to fall. In yielding them- 
selves to this fallacy they overlook the great considerations 
in which the Federal Constitution was founded. They for- 
get that in consequence of the conceded diversities in the 
interest and condition of the different States it was foreseen 
at the period of its adoption that although a particular meas- 
ure of the Government might be beneficial and proper in one 
State it might be the reverse in another ; that it was for this 
reason the States would not consent to make a grant to the 
Federal Government of the general and usual powers of 
government, but of such only as were specifically enumer- 
ated, and the probable effects of which they could, as they 
thought, safely anticipate; and they forget also the para- 
mount obligation upon all to abide by the compact then so 
solemnly and, as it was hoped, so firmly established. In 
addition to the dangers to the Constitution springing from 
the sources I have stated, there has been one which was i>er- 
haps greater than all. I allude to the materials which this 
subject has afforded for sinister appeals to selfish feelings, 
and the opinion heretofore so extensively entertained of its 
adaptation to the purposes of personal ambition. With such 
stimulants it is not surprising that the acts and pretensions 
of the Federal Government in this behalf should sometimes 
have been carried to an alarming extent. The questions 
which have arisen upon this subject have related — 

First. To the power of making internal improvements 



Sixth Annual Message 393 

within the hmits of a State, with the right of territorial 
jurisdiction, sufficient at least for their preservation and use. 

Second. To the right of appropriating money in aid of 
such works when carried on by a State or by a company in 
virtue of State authority, surrendering the claim of juris- 
diction ; and 

Third. To the propriety of appropriation for improve- 
ments of a particular class, viz., for light-houses, beacons, 
buoys, public piers, and for the removal of sand bars, saw- 
yers, and other temporary and partial impediments in our 
navigable rivers and harbors. 

The claims of power for the General Government upon 
each of these points certainly present matter of the deepest 
interest. The first is, however, of much the greatest im- 
portance, inasmuch as, in addition to the dangers of unequal 
and improvident expenditures of public moneys common to 
all, there is superadded to that the conflicting jurisdictions 
of the respective governments. Federal jurisdiction, at least 
to the extent I have stated, has been justly regarded by its 
advocates as necessarily appurtenant to the power in ques- 
tion, if that exists by the Constitution. That the most in- 
jurious conflicts would unavoidably arise between the re- 
spective jurisdictions of the State and Federal Governments 
in the absence of a constitutional provision marking out their 
respective boundaries can not be doubted. The local advan- 
tages to be obtained would induce the States to overlook in 
the beginning the dangers and difficulties to which they 
might ultimately be exposed. The powers exercised by the 
Federal Government would soon be regarded with jealousy 
by the State authorities, and originating as they must from 
implication or assumption, it would be impossible to affix 
to them certain and safe limits. Opportunities and tempta- 
tions to the assumption of power incompatible with State 
sovereignty would be increased and those barriers which 
resist the tendency of our system toward consolidation 
greatly weakened. The officers and agents of the General 
Government might not always have the discretion to abstain 
from intermeddling with State concerns, and if they did 



394 'Andrew Jackson 

they would not always escape the suspicion of having done 
so. Collisions and consequent irritations would spring up; 
that harmony which should ever exist between the General 
Government and each member of the Confederacy would be 
frequently interrupted; a spirit of contention would be en- 
gendered and the dangers of disunion greatly multiplied. 

Yet we all know that notwithstanding these grave objec- 
tions this dangerous doctrine was at one time apparently 
proceeding to its final establishment with fearful rapidity. 
The desire to embark the Federal Government in works of 
internal improvement prevailed in the highest degree during 
the first session of the first Congress that I had the honor to 
meet in my present situation. When the bill authorizing a 
subscription on the part of the United States for stock in the 
Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Company passed the two 
Houses, there had been reported by the Committees of Inter- 
nal Improvements bills containing appropriations for such 
objects, inclusive of those for the Cumberland road and for 
harbors and light-houses, to the amount of $106,000,000. 
In this amount was included authority to the Secretary of 
the Treasury to subscribe for the stock of different com- 
panies to a great extent, and the residue was principally for 
the direct construction of roads by this Government. In 
addition to these projects, which had been presented to the 
two Houses under the sanction and recommendation of their 
respective Committees on Internal Improvements, there 
were then still pending before the committees, and in me- 
morials to Congress presented but not referred, different 
projects for works of a similar character, the expense of 
which can not be estimated with certainty, but must have 
exceeded $100,000,000. 

Regarding the bill authorizing a subscription to the stock 
of the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Company as the 
entering wedge of a system which, however weak at first, 
might soon become strong enough to rive the bands of the 
Union asunder, and believing that if its passage was ac- 
quiesced in by the Executive and the people there would no 
longer be any limitation upon the authority of the General 



Sixth Annual Message 395 

Government in respect to the appropriation of money for 
such objects, I deemed it an imperative duty to withhold 
from it the Executive approval. Although from the ob- 
viously local character of that work I might well have con- 
tented myself with a refusal to approve the bill upon that 
ground, yet sensible of the vital importance of the subject, 
and anxious that my views and opinions in regard to the 
whole matter should be fully understood by Congress and 
by my constituents, I felt it my duty to go further. I there- 
fore embraced that early occasion to apprise Congress that 
in my opinion the Constitution did not confer upon it the 
power to authorize the construction of ordinary roads and 
canals within the limits of a State and to say, respectfully, 
that no bill admitting such a power could receive my official 
sanction. I did so in the confident expectation that the 
speedy settlement of the public mind upon the whole subject 
would be greatly facilitated by the difference between the 
two Houses and myself, and that the harmonious action of 
the several departments of the Federal Government in re- 
gard to it would be ultimately secured. 

So far, at least, as it regards this branch of the subject, 
my best hopes have been r. alized. Nearly four years have 
elapsed, and several sessions of Congress have intervened, 
and no attempt within my recollection has been made to 
induce Congress to exercise this power. The applications 
for the construction of roads and canals which were for- 
merly multiplied upon your files are no longer presented, 
and we have good reason to infer that the current of public 
sentiment has become so decided against the pretension as 
effectually to discourage its reassertion. So thinking, I de- 
rive the greatest satisfaction from the conviction that thus 
much at least has been secured upon this important and em- 
barrassing subject. 

From attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects 
which are confessedly of a local character we can not, I 
trust, have anything further to apprehend. My views in 
regard to the expediency of making appropriations for 
works which are claimed to be of a national character and 



39^ Andrew Jackson 

prosecuted under State authority — assuming that Congress 
have the right to do so — were stated in my annual message 
to Congress in 1830, and also in that containing my objec- 
tions to the Maysville road bill. 

So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations 
ought to be made by Congress until a suitable constitutional 
provision is made upon the subject, and so essential do I 
regard the point to the highest interests of our country, that 
I could not consider myself as discharging my duty to my 
constituents in giving the Executive sanction to any bill con- 
taining such an appropriation. If the people of the United 
States desire that the public Treasury shall be resorted to 
for the means to prosecute such works, they will concur in 
an amendment of the Constitution prescribing a rule by 
which the national character of the works is to be tested, 
and by which the greatest practicable equality of benefits 
may be secured to each member of the Confederacy. The 
effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in pre- 
venting unprofitable expenditures, in securing our legisla- 
tion from the pernicious consequences of a scramble for the 
favors of Government, and in repressing the spirit of dis- 
content which must inevitably arise from an unequal dis- 
tribution of treasures which belong alike to all. 

There is another class of appropriations for what may be 
called, without impropriety, internal improvements, which 
have always been regarded as standing upon different 
grounds from those to which I have referred. I allude to 
such as have for their object the improvement of our har- 
bors, the removal of partial and temporary obstructions in 
our navigable rivers, for the facility and security of our 
foreign commerce. The grounds upon which I distinguished 
appropriations of this character from others have already 
been stated to Congress. I will now only add that at the 
first session of Congress under the new Constitution it was 
provided by law that all expenses which should accrue from 
and after the 15th day of August, 1789, in the necessary 
support and maintenance and repairs of all light-houses, 
beacons, buoys, and public piers erected, placed, or sunk be- 



sixth Annual Message 397 

fore the passage of the act within any bay, inlet, harbor, or 
port of the United States, for rendering the navigation 
thereof easy and safe, should be defrayed out of the Treas- 
ury of the United States, and, further, that it should be the 
duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to provide by con- 
tracts, with the approbation of the President, for rebuilding 
when necessary and keeping in good repair the light-houses, 
beacons, buoys, and public piers in the several States, and 
for furnishing them with supplies. Appropriations for sim- 
ilar objects have been continued from that time to the 
present without interruption or dispute. As a natural con- 
sequence of the increase and extension of our foreign 
commerce, ports of entry and delivery have been multiplied 
and established, not only upon our seaboard, but in the in- 
terior of the country upon our lakes and navigable rivers. 
The convenience and safety of this commerce have led to 
the gradual extension of these expenditures ; to the erection 
of light-houses, the placing, planting, and sinking of buoys, 
beacons, and piers, and to the removal of partial and tem- 
porary obstructions in our navigable rivers and in the har- 
bors upon our Great Lakes as well as on the seaboard. Al- 
though I have expressed to Congress my apprehension that 
these expenditures have sometimes been extravagant and 
disproportionate to the advantages to be derived from them, 
I have not felt it to be my duty to refuse my assent to bills 
containing them, and have contented myself to follow in this 
respect in the footsteps of all my predecessors. Sensible, 
however, from experience and observation of the great 
abuses to which the unrestricted exercise of this authority 
by Congress was exposed, I have prescribed a limitation for 
the government of my own conduct by which expenditures 
of this character are confined to places below the ports of 
entry or delivery established by law. I am very sensible that 
this restriction is not as satisfactory as could be desired, and 
that much embarrassment may be caused to the executive 
department in its execution by appropriations for remote 
and not well-understood objects. But as neither my own 
reflections nor the lights which I may properly derive from 



39^ Andrew Jackson 

other sources have supplied me with a better, I shall continue 
to apply my best exertions to a faithful application of the 
rule upon which it is founded. I sincerely regret that I 
could not give my assent to the bill entitled " An act to 
improve the navigation of the Wabash River ; " but I could 
not have done so without receding from the ground which 
I have, upon the fullest consideration, taken upon this sub- 
ject, and of which Congress has been heretofore apprised, 
and without throwing the subject again open to abuses which 
no good citizen entertaining my opinions could desire. 

I rely upon the intelligence and candor of my fellow-citi- 
zens, in whose liberal indulgence I have already so largely 
participated, for a correct appreciation of my motives in 
interposing as I have done on this and other occasions 
checks to a course of legislation which, without in the slight- 
est degree calling in question the motives of others, I con- 
sider as sanctioning improper and unconstitutional expendi- 
tures of public treasure. 

I am not hostile to internal improvements, and wish to 
see them extended to every part of the country. But I am 
fully persuaded, if they are not commenced in a proper man- 
ner, confined to proper objects, and conducted under an 
authority generally conceded to be rightful, that a successful 
prosecution of them can not be reasonably expected. The 
attempt will meet with resistance where it might otherwise 
receive support, and instead of strengthening the bonds of 
our Confederacy it will only multiply and aggravate the 
causes of disunion. 



Seventh Annual Message.* 

(December 7, 1835.) 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Represent- 
atives: In the discharge of my official duty the task again 
devolves upon me of communicating with a new Congress. 
The reflection that the representation of the Union has been 
recently renewed, and that the constitutional term of its 
service will expire with my own, heightens the solicitude 
with which I shall attempt to lay before it the state of our 
national concerns and the devout hope which I cherish that 
its labors to improve them may be crowned with success. 

You are assembled at a period of profound interest to the 
American patriot. The unexampled growth and prosperity 
of our country having given us a rank in the scale of na- 
tions which removes all apprehension of danger to our in- 
tegrity and independence from external foes, the career of 
freedom is before us, with an earnest from the past that if 
true to ourselves there can be no formidable obstacle in the 
future to its peaceful and uninterrupted pursuit. Yet, in 
proportion to the disappearance of those apprehensions 
which attended our weakness, as once contrasted with the 
power of some of the States of the Old World, should we 
now be solicitous as to those which belong to the conviction 
that it is to our own conduct we must look for the preserva- 

* In connection with the history of the period, this message should 
be read in its declarations concerning, (i) the northeastern boundary; 
(2) the Spanish claims; (3) foreign relations (notably Holland, Bel- 
gium, Turkey, Mexico and the South American governments); (4) 
French spoliations; (5) final extinction of the public debt; (6) the 
Bank of the U. S. ; (7) removal of Indian tribes to reservations; (8) 
internal improvements; (9) circulation through the mails of "incen- 
diary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." 

This message is specially interesting in its disclosure of the Govern- 
ment's attitude toward thg rising anti-slavery movement. [Ed.] 

399 



400 Andrew Jackson 

tion of those causes on which depend the excellence and the 
duration of our happy system of government. 

In the example of other systems founded on the will of 
the people we trace to internal dissension the influences 
which have so often blasted the hopes of the friends of free- 
dom. The social elements, which were strong and successful 
when united against external danger, failed in the more diffi- 
cult task of properly adjusting their own internal organiza- 
tion, and thus gave way the great principle of self-govern- 
ment. Let us trust that this admonition will never be 
forgotten by the Government or the people of the United 
States, and that the testimony which our experience thus far 
holds out to the great human family of the practicability 
and the blessings of free government will be confirmed in 
all time to come. 

We have but to look at the state of our agriculture, manu- 
factures, and commerce and the unexampled increase of our 
population to feel the magnitude of the trust committed to 
us. Never in any former period of our history have we had 
greater reason than we now have to be thankful to Divine 
Providence for the blessings of health and general pros- 
perity. Every branch of labor we see crowned with the 
most abundant rewards. In every element of national re- 
sources and wealth and of individual comfort we witness 
the most rapid and solid improvements. With no interrup- 
tions to this pleasing prospect at home which will not yield 
to the spirit of harmony and good will that so strikingly per- 
vades the mass of the people in every quarter, amidst all the 
diversity of interest and pursuits to which they are attached, 
and with no cause of solicitude in regard to our external 
affairs which will not, it is hoped, disappear before the prin- 
ciples of simple justice and the forbearance that mark our 
intercourse with foreign powers, we have every reason to 
feel proud of our beloved country. 

The general state of our foreign relations has not ma- 
terially changed since my last annual message. 

In the settlement of the question of the northeastern 
boundary little progress has been made. Great Britain has 



Seventh Annual Message 401 

declined acceding to the proposition of the United States, 
presented in accordance with the resolution of the Senate, 
unless certain preliminary conditions were admitted, which 
I deemed incompatible with a satisfactory and rightful ad- 
justment of the controversy. Waiting for some distinct pro- 
posal from the Government of Great Britain, which has been 
invited, I can only repeat the expression of my confidence 
that, with the strong mutual disposition which I believe ex- 
ists to make a just arrangement, this perplexing question 
can be settled with a due regard to the well-founded pre- 
tensions and pacific policy of all the parties to it. Events 
are frequently occurring on the northeastern frontier of a 
character to impress upon all the necessity of a speedy and 
definitive termination of the dispute. This consideration, 
added to the desire common to both to relieve the liberal and 
friendly relations so happily existing between the two coun- 
tries from all embarrassment, will no doubt have its just 
influence upon both. 

Our diplomatic intercourse with Portugal has been re- 
newed, and it is expected that the claims of our citizens, 
partially paid, will be fully satisfied as soon as the condition 
of the Queen's Government will permit the proper attention 
to the subject of them. That Government has, I am happy 
to inform you, manifested a determination to act upon the 
liberal principles which have marked our commercial policy. 
The happiest effects upon the future trade between the 
United States and Portugal are anticipated from it, and the 
time is not thought to be remote when a system of perfect 
reciprocity will be established. 

The installments due under the convention with the King 
of the Two Sicilies have been paid with that scrupulous 
fidelity by which his whole conduct has been characterized, 
and the hope is indulged that the adjustment of the vexed 
question of our claims will be followed by a more extended 
and mutually beneficial intercourse between the two coun- 
tries. 

The internal contest still continues in Spain. Distin- 
guished as this struggle has unhappily been by incidents of 



402 Andrew Jackson 

the most sanguinary character, the obhgations of the late 
treaty of indemnification with us have been, nevertheless, 
faithfully executed by the Spanish Government. 

No provision having been made at the last session of Con- 
gress for the ascertainment of the claims to be paid and the 
apportionment of the funds under the convention made with 
Spain, I invite your early attention to the subject. The pub- 
lic evidences of the debt have, according to the terms of the 
convention and in the forms prescribed by it, been placed in 
the possession of the United States, and the interest as it fell 
due has been regularly paid upon them. Our commercial 
intercourse with Cuba stands as regulated by the act of Con- 
gress, No recent information has been received as to the 
disposition of the Government of Madrid on this subject, 
and the lamented death of our recently appointed minister 
on his way to Spain, with the pressure of their affairs at 
home, renders it scarcely probable that any change is to be 
looked for during the coming year. Further portions of the 
Florida archives have been sent to the United States, al- 
though the death of one of the commissioners at a critical 
moment embarrassed the progress of the delivery of them. 
The higher officers of the local government have recently 
shewn an anxious desire, in compliance with the orders from 
the parent Government, to facilitate the selection and de- 
livery of all we have a right to claim. 

Negotiations have been opened at Madrid for the estab- 
lishment of a lasting peace between Spain and such of the 
Spanish American Governments of this hemisphere as have 
availed themselves of the intimation given to all of them of 
the disposition of Spain to treat upon the basis of their en- 
tire independence. It is to be regretted that simultaneous 
appointments by all of the ministers to negotiate with Spain 
had not been made. The negotiation itself would have been 
simplified, and this long-standing dispute, spreading over a 
large portion of the world, would have been brought to a 
more speedy conclusion. 

Our political and commercial relations with Austria, 
Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark stand on the usual favorable 



Seventh Annual Message 403 

bases. One of the articles of our treaty with Russia in re- 
lation to the trade on the northwest coast of America having 
expired, instructions have been given to our minister at St. 
Petersburg to negotiate a renewal of it. The long and un- 
broken amity between the two Governments gives every 
reason for supposing the article will be renewed, if stronger 
motives do not exist to prevent it than with our view of the 
subject can be anticipated here. 

I ask your attention to the message of my predecessor at 
the opening of the second session of the Nineteenth Con- 
gress, relative to our commercial intercourse with Holland, 
and to the documents connected with that subject, communi- 
cated to the House of Representatives on the loth of Jan- 
uary, 1825, and i8th of January, 1827. Coinciding in the 
opinion of my predecessor that Holland is not, under the 
regulations of her present system, entitled to have her ves- 
sels and their cargoes received into the United States on the 
footing of American vessels and cargoes as regards duties 
of tonnage and impost, a respect for his reference of it to 
the Legislature has alone prevented me from acting on the 
subject. I should still have waited without comment for the 
action of Congress, but recently a claim has been made by 
Belgian subjects to admission into our ports for their ships 
and cargoes on the same footing as American, with the 
allegation we could not dispute that our vessels received in 
their ports the identical treatment shewn to them in the 
ports of Holland, upon whose vessels no discrimination is 
made in the ports of the United States. Giving the same 
privileges the Belgians expected the same benefits — benefits 
that were, in fact, enjoyed when Belgium and Holland were 
united under one Government. Satisfied with the justice of 
their pretension to be placed on the same footing with Hol- 
land, I could not, nevertheless, without disregard to the 
principle of our laws, admit their claim to be treated as 
Americans, and at the same time a respect for Congress, to 
whom the subject had long since been referred, has pre- 
vented me from producing a just equality by taking from 
the vessels of Holland privileges conditionally granted by 



4^4 Andrew Jackson 

acts of Congress, although the condition upon which the 
grant was made has, in my judgment, failed since 1822. 
I recommend, therefore, a review of the act of 1824, and 
such a modification of it as will produce an equality on 
such terms as Congress shall think best comports with our 
settled policy and the obligations of justice to two friendly 
powers. 

With the Sublime Porte and all the Governments on the 
coast of Barbary our relations continue to be friendly. The 
proper steps have been taken to renew our treaty with Mo- 
rocco. 

The Argentine Republic has again promised to send with- 
in the current year a minister to the United States. 

A convention with Mexico for extending the time for the 
appointment of commissioners to run the boundary line has 
been concluded and will be submitted to the Senate. Recent 
events in that country have awakened the liveliest solicitude 
in the United States. Aware of the strong temptations ex- 
isting and powerful inducements held out to the citizens of 
the United States to mingle in the dissensions of our im- 
mediate neighbors, instructions have been given to the dis- 
trict attorneys of the United States where indications war- 
ranted it to prosecute without respect to persons all who 
might attempt to violate the obligations of our neutrality, 
while at the same time it has been thought necessary to 
apprise the Government of Mexico that we should require 
the integrity of our territory to be scrupulously respected by 
both parties. 

From our diplomatic agents in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Cen- 
tral America, Venezuela, and New Granada constant assur- 
ances are received of the continued good understanding with 
the Governments to which they are severally accredited. 
With those Governments upon which our citizens have valid 
and accumulating claims, scarcely an advance toward a set- 
tlement of them is made, owing mainly to their distracted 
state or to the pressure of imperative domestic questions. 
Our patience has been and will probably be still further se- 
verely tried, but our fellow-citizens whose interests are in- 



Seventh Annual Message 4^5 

volved may confide in the determination of the Government 
to obtain for them eventually ample retribution. 

Unfortunately, many of the nations of this hemisphere 
are still self-tormented by domestic dissensions. Revolution 
succeeds revolution; injuries are committed upon foreigners 
engaged in lawful pursuits; much time elapses before a gov- 
ernment sufficiently stable is erected to justify expectation 
of redress; ministers are sent and received, and before the 
discussions of past injuries are fairly begun fresh troubles 
arise; but too frequently new injuries are added to the old, 
to be discussed together with the existing government after 
it has proved its ability to sustain the assaults made upon it, 
or with its successor if overthrown. If this unhappy condi- 
tion of things continues much longer, other nations will be 
under the painful necessity of deciding whether justice to 
their suffering citizens does not require a prompt redress of 
injuries by their own power, without waiting for the estab- 
lishment of a government competent and enduring enough 
to discuss and to make satisfaction for them. 

Since the last session of Congress the validity of our 
claims upon France, as liquidated by the treaty of 1831, has 
been acknowledged by both branches of her legislature, and 
the money has been appropriated for their discharge ; but the 
payment is, I regret to inform you, still withheld. 

A brief recapitulation of the most important incidents in 
this protracted controversy will shew how utterly untenable 
are the grounds upon which this course is attempted to be 
justified. 

On entering upon the duties of my station I found the 
United States an unsuccessful applicant to the justice of 
France for the satisfaction of claims the validity of which 
was never questionable, and has now been most solemnly 
admitted by France herself. The antiquity of these claims, 
their high justice, and the aggravating circumstances out of 
which they arose are too familiar to the American people to 
require description. It is sufficient to say that for a period 
of ten years and upward our commerce was, with but little 
interruption, the subject of constant aggressions on the part 



^o6 Andrew Jackson 

of France — aggressions the ordinary features of which were 
condemnations of vessels and cargoes under arbitrary de- 
crees, adopted in contravention as well of the laws of na- 
tions as of treaty stipulations, burnings on the high seas, 
and seizures and confiscations under special imperial re- 
scripts in the ports of other nations occupied by the armies 
or under the control of France. Such it is now conceded 
is the character of the wrongs we suffered — wrongs in many 
cases so flagrant that even their authors never denied our 
right to reparation. Of the extent of these injuries some 
conception may be formed from the fact that after the burn- 
ing of a large amount at sea and the necessary deterioration 
in other cases by long detention the American property so 
seized and sacrificed at forced sales, excluding what was 
adjudged to privateers before or without condemnation, 
brought into the French treasury upward of 24,000,000 
francs, besides large custom-house duties. 

The subject had already been an affair of twenty years' 
uninterrupted negotiation, except for a short time when 
France was overwhelmed by the military power of united 
Europe. During this period, whilst other nations were ex- 
torting from her payment of their claims at the point of the 
bayonet, the United States intermitted their demand for jus- 
tice out of respect to the oppressed condition of a gallant 
people to whom they felt under obligations for fraternal 
assistance in their own days of suffering and of peril. The 
bad effects of these protracted and unavailing discussions, 
as well upon our relations with France as upon our national 
character, were obvious, and the line of duty was to my 
mind equally so. This was either to insist upon the adjust- 
ment of our claims within a reasonable period or to aban- 
don them altogether. I could not doubt that by this course 
the interests and honor of both countries would be best con- 
sulted. Instructions were therefore given in this spirit to 
the minister who was sent out once more to demand repara- 
tion. Upon the meeting of Congress in December, 1829, I 
felt it my duty to speak of these claims and the delays of 
France in terms calculated to call the serious attention of 



Seventh Annual Message 4^7 

both countries to the subject. The then French ministry 
took exception to the message on the ground of its contain- 
ing a menace, under which it was not agreeable to the 
French Government to negotiate. The American minister 
of his own accord refuted the construction which was at- 
tempted to be put upon the message and at the same time 
called to the recollection of the French ministry that the 
President's message was a communication addressed, not to 
foreign governments, but to the Congress of the United 
States, in which it was enjoined upon him by the Constitu- 
tion to lay before that body information of the state of the 
Union, comprehending its foreign as well as its domestic 
relations, and that if in the discharge of this duty he felt it 
incumbent upon him to summon the attention of Congress 
in due time to what might be the possible consequences of 
existing difficulties with any foreign government, he might 
fairly be supposed to do so under a sense of what was due 
from him in a frank communication with another branch 
of his own Government, and not from any intention of 
holding a menace over a foreign power. The views taken 
by him received my approbation, the French Government 
was satisfied, and the negotiation was continued. It ter- 
minated in the treaty of July 4, 1831, recognizing the jus- 
tice of our claims in part and promising payment to the 
amount of 25,000,000 francs in six annual installments. 

The ratifications of this treaty were exchanged at Wash- 
ington on the 2d of February, 1832, and in five days there- 
after it was laid before Congress, who immediately passed 
the acts necessary on our part to secure to France the com- 
mercial advantages conceded to her in the compact. The 
treaty had previously been solemnly ratified by the King 
of the French in terms which are certainly not mere matters 
of form, and of which the translation is as follows : 

We, approving the above convention in all and each of 
the dispositions which are contained in it, do declare, by our- 
selves as well as by our heirs and successors, that it is ac- 
cepted, approved, ratified, and confirmed, and by these pres- 



4o8 Andrew Jackson 

ents, signed by our hand, we do accept, approve, ratify, and 
confirm it; promising, on the faith and word of a king, to 
observe it and to cause it to be observed inviolably, without 
ever contravening it or suffering it to be contravened, di- 
rectly or indirectly, for any cause or under any pretense 
whatsoever. 

Official information of the exchange of ratifications in the 
United States reached Paris whilst the Chambers were in 
session. The extraordinary and to us injurious delays of 
the French Government in their action upon the subject of 
its fulfillment have been heretofore stated to Congress, and 
I have no disposition to enlarge upon them here. It is 
sufficient to observe that the then pending session was al- 
lowed to expire* without even an effort to obtain the neces- 
sary appropriations ; that the two succeeding ones were also 
suffered to pass away without anything like a serious at- 
tempt to obtain a decision upon the subject, and that it was 
not until the fourth session, almost three years after the 
conclusion of the treaty and more than two years after the 
exchange of ratifications, that the bill for the execution of 
the treaty was pressed to a vote and rejected. 

In the meantime the Government of the United States, 
having full confidence that a treaty entered into and so sol- 
emnly ratified by the French King would be executed in 
good faith, and not doubting that provision would be made 
for the payment of the first installment which was to be- 
come due on the 2d day of February, 1833, negotiated a 
draft for the amount through the Bank of the United States. 
When this draft was presented by the holder with the cre- 
denials required by the treaty to authorize him to receive the 
money, the Government of France allowed it to be pro- 
tested. In addition to the injury in the nonpayment of the 
money by France, conformably to her engagement, the 
United States were exposed to a heavy claim on the part 
of the bank under pretense of damages, in satisfaction of 
which that institution seized upon and still retains an equal 
amount of the public money. Congress was in session when 
the decision of the Chambers reached Washington, and an 



Seventh Annual Message 4^9 

immediate communication of this apparently final decision 
of France not to fulfill the stipulations of the treaty was 
the course naturally to be expected from the President. The 
deep tone of dissatisfaction which pervaded the public 
mind and the correspondent excitement produced in Con- 
gress by only a general knowledge of the result rendered it 
more than probable that a resort to immediate measures of 
redress would be the consequence of calling the attention of 
that body to the subject. Sincerely desirous of preserving 
the pacific relations which had so long existed between the 
two countries, I was anxious to avoid this course if I could 
be satisfied that by doing so neither the interests nor the 
honor of my country would be compromitted. Without the 
fullest assurances upon that point, I could not hope to ac- 
quit myself of the responsibility to be incurred in suffering 
Congress to adjourn without laying the subject before them. 
Those received by me were believed to be of that character. 
That the feelings produced in the United States by the 
news of the rejection of the appropriation would be such as 
I have described them to have been was foreseen by the 
French Government, and prompt measures were taken by it 
to prevent the consequences. The King in person expressed 
through our minister at Paris his profound regret at the 
decision of the Chambers, and promised to send forthwith 
a national ship with dispatches to his minister here autlior- 
izing him to give such assurances as would satisfy the Gov- 
ernment and people of the United States that the treaty 
would yet be faithfully executed by France. The national 
ship arrived, and the minister received his instructions. 
Claiming to act under the authority derived from them, 
he gave to this Government in the name of his the most 
solemn assurances that as soon after the new elections as 
the charter would permit the French Chambers would be 
convened and the attempt to procure the necessary appro- 
priations renewed ; that all the constitutional powers of the 
King and his ministers should be put in requisition to ac- 
complish the object, and he was understood, and so ex- 
pressly informed by this Government at the time, to engage 



4IO Andrew Jackson 

that the question should be pressed to a decision at a period 
sufficiently early to permit information of the result to be 
communicated to Congress at the commencement of their 
next session. Relying upon these assurances, I incurred 
the responsibility, great as I regarded it to be, of suffering 
Congress to separate without communicating with them 
upon the subject. 

The expectations justly founded upon the promises thus 
solemnly made to this Government by that of France were 
not realized. The French Chambers met on the 31st of July, 
1834, soon after the election, and although our minister in 
Paris urged the French ministry to bring the subject before 
them, they declined doing so. He next insisted that the 
Chambers, if prorogued without acting on the subject, 
should be reassembled at a period so early that their action 
on the treaty might be known in Washington prior to the 
meeting of Congress. This reasonable request was not only 
declined, but the Chambers were prorogued to the 29th of 
December, a day so late that their decision, however ur- 
gently pressed, could not in all probability be obtained in 
time to reach Washington before the necessary adjournment 
of Congress by the Constitution. The reasons given by the 
ministry for refusing to convoke the Chambers at an earlier 
period were afterwards shewn not to be insuperable by their 
actual convocation on the ist of December under a special 
call for domestic purposes, which fact, however, did not 
become known to this Government until after the com- 
mencement of the last session of Congress. 

Thus disappointed in our just expectations, it became my 
imperative duty to consult with Congress in regard to the 
expediency of a resort to retaliatory measures in case the 
stipulations of the treaty should not be speedily complied 
with, and to recommend such as in my judgment the occa- 
sion called for. To this end an unreserved communication 
of the case in all its aspects became indispensable. To have 
shrunk in making it from saying all that was necessary to 
its correct understanding, and that the truth would justify, 
for fear of giving offense to others, would have been un- 



Seventh Annual Message 411 

worthy of us. To have gone, on the other hand, a single 
step further for the purpose of wounding the pride of a 
Government and people with whom we had so many motives 
for cultivating relations of amity and reciprocal advantage 
would have been unwise and improper. Admonished by the 
past of the difficulty of making even the simplest statement 
of our wrongs without disturbing the sensibilities of those 
who had by their position become responsible for their re- 
dress, and earnestly desirous of preventing further ob- 
stacles from that source, I went out of my way to preclude 
a construction of the message by which the recommenda- 
tion that was made to Congress might be regarded as a 
menace to France in not only disavowing such a design, 
but in declaring that her pride and her power were too well 
known to expect anything from her fears. The message 
did not reach Paris until more than a month after the Cham- 
bers had been in session, and such was the insensibility of 
the ministry to our rightful claims and just expectations 
that our minister had been informed that the matter when 
introduced would not be pressed as a cabinet measure. 

Although the message was not officially communicated to 
the French Government, and notwithstanding the declara- 
tion to the contrary which it contained, the French ministry 
decided to consider the conditional recommendation of re- 
prisals a menace and an insult which the honor of the na- 
tion made it incumbent on them to resent. The measures 
resorted to by them to evince their sense of the supposed in- 
dignity were the immediate recall of their minister at Wash- 
ington, the offer of passports to the American minister at 
Paris, and a public notice to the legislative Chambers that 
all diplomatic intercourse with the United States had been 
suspended. Having in this manner vindicated the dignity 
of France, they next proceeded to illustrate her justice. To 
this end a bill was immediately introduced into the Chamber 
of Deputies proposing to make the appropriations neces- 
sary to carry into effect the treaty. As this bill subsequently 
passed into a law, the provisions of which now constitute 
the main subject of difficulty between the two nations, it 



412 Andrew Jackson 

becomes my duty, in order to place the subject before you 
in a clear light, to trace the history of its passage and to 
refer with some particularity to the proceedings and dis- 
cussions in regard to it. 

The minister of finance in his opening speech alluded to 
the measures which had been adopted to resent the supposed 
indignity, and recommended the execution of the treaty as 
a measure required by the honor and justice of France. 
He as the organ of the ministry declared the message, so 
long as it had not received the sanction of Congress, a mere 
expression of the personal opinion of the President, for 
which neither the Government nor people of the United 
States were responsible, and that an engagement had been 
entered into for the fulfillment of which the honor of France 
was pledged. Entertaining these views, the single condi- 
tion which the French ministry proposed to annex to the 
payment of the money was that it should not be made until 
it was ascertained that the Government of the United States 
had done nothing to injure the interests of France, or, in 
other words, that no steps had been authorized by Congress 
of a hostile character toward France. 

What the disposition or action of Congress might be was 
then unknown to the French cabinet; but on the 14th of 
January the Senate resolved that it was at that time inex- 
pedient to adopt any legislative measures in regard to the 
state of affairs between the United States and France, and 
no action on the subject had occurred in the House of Rep- 
resentatives. These facts were known in Paris prior to the 
28th of March, 1835, when the committee to whom the bill 
of indemnification had been referred reported it to the 
Chamber of Deputies. That committee substantially re- 
echoed the sentiments of the ministry, declared that Con- 
gress had set aside the proposition of the President, and 
recommended the passage of the bill without any other re- 
striction than that originally proposed. Thus was it known 
to the French ministry and Chambers that if the position 
assumed by them, and which had been so frequently and sol- 
emnly announced as the only one compatible with the honor 



Seventh Annual Message 4^3 

of France, was maintained and the bill passed as originally 
proposed, the money would be paid and there would be an 
end of this unfortunate controversy. 

But this cheering prospect was soon destroyed by an 
amendment introduced into the bill at the moment of its 
passage, providing that the money should not be paid until 
the French Government had received satisfactory explana- 
tions of the President's message of the 2d December, 1834, 
and, what is still more extraordinary, the president of the 
council of ministers adopted this amendment and consented 
to its incorporation in the bill. In regard to a supposed in- 
sult which had been formally resented by the recall of their 
minister and the offer of passports to ours, they now for the 
first time proposed to ask explanations. Sentiments and 
propositions which they had declared could not justly be im- 
puted to the Government or people of the United States are 
set up as obstacles to the performance of an act of con- 
ceded justice to that Government and people. They had 
declared that the honor of France required the fulfillment of 
the engagement into which the King had entered, unless 
Congress adopted the recommendations of the message. 
They ascertained that Congress did not adopt them, and 
yet that fulfillment is refused unless they first obtain from 
the President explanations of an opinion characterized by 
themselves as personal and inoperative. 

The conception that it was my intention to menace or in- 
sult the Government of France is as unfounded as the at- 
tempt to extort from the fears of that nation what her 
sense of justice may deny would be vain and ridiculous. 
But the Constitution of the United States imposes on the 
President the duty of laying before Congress the condition 
of the country in its foreign and domestic relations, and of 
recommending such measures as may in his opinion be re- 
quired by its interests. From the performance of this duty 
he cannot be deterred by the fear of wounding the sensi- 
bilities of the people or government of whom it may become 
necessary to speak ; and the American people are incapable 
of submitting to an interference by any government on 



414 Andrew Jackson 

earth, however powerful, with the free performance of the 
domestic duties which the Constitution has imposed on 
their pubhc functionaries. The discussions which intervene 
between the several departments of our Government belong 
to ourselves, and for anything said in them our public serv- 
ants are only responsible to their own constituents and to 
each other. If in the course of their consultations facts are 
erroneously stated or unjust deductions are made, they re- 
quire no other inducement to correct them, however in- 
formed of their error, than their love of justice and what is 
due to their own character ; but they can never submit to be 
interrogated upon the subject as a matter of right by a 
foreign power. When our discussions terminate in acts, 
our responsibility to foreign powers commences, not as in- 
dividuals, but as a nation. The principle which calls in 
question the President for the language of his message 
would equally justify a foreign power in demanding ex- 
planation of the language used in the report of a committee 
or by a member in debate. 

This is not the first time that the Government of France 
has taken exception to the messages of American Presidents. 
President Washington and the first President Adams in the 
performance of their duties to the American people fell un- 
der the animadversions of the French Directory. The ob- 
jection taken by the ministry of Charles X, and removed by 
the explanations made by our minister upon the spot, has 
already been adverted to. When it was understood that 
the ministry of the present King took exception to my mes- 
sage of last year, putting a construction upon it which was 
disavowed on its face, our late minister at Paris, in answer 
to the note which first announced a dissatisfaction with the 
language used in the message, made a communication to 
the French Government under date of the 29th of January, 
1835, calculated to remove all impressions which an unrea- 
sonable susceptibility had created. He repeated and called 
the attention of the French Government to the disavowal 
contained in the message itself of any intention to intimi- 
date by menace; he truly declared that it contained and 



Seventh Annual Message 4^5 

was intended to contain no charge of ill faith against the 
King of the French, and properly distinguished between the 
right to complain in unexceptionable terms of the omission 
to execute an agreement and an accusation of bad motives 
in withholding such execution, and demonstrated that the 
necessary use of that right ought not to be considered as an 
offensive imputation. Although this communication was 
made without instructions and entirely on the minister's 
own responsibility, yet it was afterwards made the act of 
this Government by my full approbation, and that approba- 
tion was officially made known on the 25th of April, 1835, 
to the French Government. It, however, failed to have any 
effect. The law, after this friendly explanation, passed with 
the obnoxious amendment, supported by the King's minis- 
ters, and was finally approved by the King. 

The people of the United States are justly attached to a 
pacific system in their intercourse with foreign nations. It 
is proper, therefore, that they should know whether their 
Government has adhered to it. In the present instance it 
has been carried to the utmost extent that was consistent 
with a becoming self-respect. The note of the 29th of Jan- 
uary, to which I have before alluded, was not the only one 
which our minister took upon himself the responsibility of 
presenting on the same subject and in the same spirit. Find- 
ing that it was intended to make the payment of a just debt 
dependent on the performance of a condition which he knew 
could never be complied with, he thought it a duty to make 
another attempt to convince the French Government that 
whilst self-respect and regard to the dignity of other na- 
tions would always prevent us from using any language that 
ought to give offense, yet we could never admit a right in 
any foreign government to ask explanations of or to inter- 
fere in any manner in the communications which one branch 
of our public councils made with another ; that in the pres- 
ent case no such language had been used, and that this had 
in a former note been fully and voluntarily stated, before it 
was contemplated to make the explanation a condition ; and 
that there might be no misapprehension he stated the terms 



41 6 Andrew Jackson 

used in that note, and he officially informed them that it 
had been approved by the President, and that therefore 
every explanation which could reasonably be asked or hon- 
orably given had been already made ; that the contemplated 
measure had been anticipated by a voluntary and friendly 
declaration, and v^as therefore not only useless, but might 
be deemed offensive, and certainly would not be complied 
wnth if annexed as a condition. 

When this latter communication, to which I especially 
invite the attention of Congress, was laid before me, I en- 
tertained the hope that the means it was obviously intended 
to afford of an honorable and speedy adjustment of the diffi- 
culties between the two nations would have been accepted, 
and I therefore did not hesitate to give it my sanction and 
full approbation. This was due to the minister w^ho had 
made himself responsible for the act, and it was published 
to the people of the United States and is now laid before 
their representatives to shew how far their Executive has 
gone in its endeavors to restore a good understanding be- 
tween the two countries. It would have been at any time 
communicated to the Government of France had it been of- 
ficially requested. 

The French Government having received all the expla- 
nation which honor and principle permitted, and which 
could in reason be asked, it was hoped it would no longer 
hesitate to pay the installments now due. The agent au- 
thorized to receive the money was instructed to inform the 
French minister of his readiness to do so. In reply to 
this notice he was told that the money could not then be 
paid, because the formalities required by the act of the 
Chambers had not been arranged. 

Not having received any official information of the inten- 
tions of the French Government, and anxious to bring, as 
far as practicable, this unpleasant affair to a close before 
the meeting of Congress, that you might have the whole 
subject before you, I caused our charge d'affaires at Paris 
to be instructed to ask for the final determination of the 
French Government, and in the event of their refusal to pay 



Seventh Annual Message 4^7 

the installments now due, without further explanations to 
return to the United States. 

The result of this last application has not yet reached us, 
but is daily expected. That it may be favorable is my sin- 
cere wish. France having now, through all the branches of 
her Government, acknowledged the validity of our claims 
and the obligation of the treaty of 1831, and there really ex- 
isting no adequate cause for further delay, will at length, 
it may be hoped, adopt the course which the interests of 
both nations, not less than the principles of justice, so im- 
periously require. The treaty being once executed on her 
part, little will remain to disturb the friendly relations of 
the two countries — nothing, indeed, which will not yield 
to the suggestions of a pacific and enlightened policy and to 
the influence of that mutual good will and of those generous 
recollections which we may confidently expect will then be 
revived in all their ancient force. In any event, however, 
the principle involved in the new aspect which has been 
given to the controversy is so vitally important to the in- 
dependent administration of the Government that it can 
neither be surrendered nor compromitted without national 
degradation. I hope it is unnecessary for me to say that 
such a sacrifice will not be made through any agency of 
mine. The honor of my country shall never be stained by 
an apology from me for the statement of truth and the per- 
formance of duty; nor can I give any explanation of my 
official acts except such as is due to integrity and justice and 
consistent with the principles on which our institutions have 
been framed. This determination will, I am confident, be 
approved by my constituents. I have, indeed, studied their 
character to but little purpose if the sum of 25,000,000 
francs will have the weight of a feather in the estimation 
of what appertains to their national independence, and if, 
unhappily, a different impression should at any time obtain 
in any quarter, they will, I am sure, rally round the Gov- 
ernment of their choice with alacrity and unanimity, and 
silence forever the degrading imputation. 

Having thus frankly presented to you the circumstances 



41 8 Andrew Jackson 

which since the last session of Congress have occurred in 
this interesting and important matter, with the views of the 
Executive in regard to them, it is at this time only neces- 
sary to add that whenever the advices now daily expected 
from our charge d'affaires shall have been received they 
will be made the subject of a special communication. 

The condition of the public finances was never more flat- 
tering than at the present period. 

Since my last annual communication all the remains of 
the public debt have been redeemed, or money has been 
placed in deposit for this purpose w^henever the creditors 
choose to receive it. All the other pecuniary engagements 
of the Government have been honorably and promptly ful- 
filled, and there will be a balance in the Treasury at the 
close of the present year of about $19,000,000. It is be- 
lieved that after meeting all outstanding and unexpended 
appropriations there will remain near eleven millions to be 
applied to any new objects which Congress may designate 
or to the more rapid execution of the works already in 
progress. In aid of these objects, and to satisfy the cur- 
rent expenditures of the ensuing year, it is estimated that 
there will be received from various sources twenty millions 
more in 1836. 

Should Congress make new appropriations in conformity 
with the estimates which will be submitted from the proper 
Departments, amounting to about twenty-four millions, still 
the available surplus at the close of the next year, after de- 
ducting all unexpended appropriations, will probably not be 
less than six millions. This sum can, in my judgment, be 
now usefully applied to proposed improvements in our 
navy-yards, and to new national works which are not enu- 
merated in the present estimates or to the more rapid com- 
pletion of those already begim. Either would be consti- 
tutional and useful, and would render unnecessary any 
attempt in our present peculiar condition to divide tlie sur- 
plus revenue or to reduce it any faster than will be effected 
by the existing laws. In any event, as the annual report 
from the Secretary of the Treasury will enter into details, 



Seventh Annual Message 4^9 

shewing the probabiHty of some decrease in the revenue 
during the next seven years and a very considerable de- 
duction in 1842, it is not recommended that Congress should 
undertake to modify the present tariff so as to disturb the 
principles on which the compromise act was passed. Tax- 
ation on some of the articles of general consumption which 
are not in competition with our own productions may be 
no doubt so diminished as to lessen to some extent the 
source of this revenue, and the same object can also be 
assisted by more liberal provisions for the subjects of pub- 
lic defense, which in the present state of our prosperity and 
wealth may be expected to engage your attention. If, how- 
ever, after satisfying all the demands which can arise from 
these sources the unexpended balance in the Treasury should 
still continue to increase, it would be better to bear with 
the evil until the great changes contemplated in our tariff 
laws have occurred and shall enable us to revise the sys- 
tem with that care and circumspection which are due to so 
delicate and important a subject. 

It is certainly our duty to diminish as far as we can the 
burdens of taxation and to regard all the restrictions which 
are imposed on the trade and navigation of our citizens as 
evils which we shall mitigate whenever we are not pre- 
vented by the adverse legislation and policy of foreign na- 
tions or those primary duties which the defense and in- 
dependence of our country enjoin upon us. That we have 
accomplished much toward the relief of our citizens by the 
changes which have accompanied the payment of the public 
debt and the adoption of the present revenue laws is mani- 
fest from the fact that compared with 1833 there is a dim- 
inution of near twenty-five millions in the last two years, 
and that our expenditures, independently of those for the 
public debt, have been reduced near nine millions during the 
same period. Let us trust that by the continued observ- 
ance of economy and by harmonizing the great interests of 
agriculture, manufactures, and commerce much more may 
be accomplished to diminish the burdens of government 
and to increase still further the enterprise and the patriotic 



420 Andrew Jackson 

affection of all classes of our citizens and all the members 
of our happy Confederacy. As the data which the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury will lay before you in regard to our 
financial resources are full and extended, and will afford a 
safe guide in your future calculations, I think it unneces- 
sary to offer any further observations on that subject here. 

Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity of the 
country, not the least gratifying is that afforded by the re- 
ceipts from the sales of the public lands, which amount in 
the present year to the unexpected sum of $11,000,000. 
This circumstance attests the rapidity with which agricul- 
ture, the first and most important occupation of man, ad- 
vances and contributes to the wealth and power of our 
extended territory. Being still of the opinion that it is 
our best policy, as far as we can consistently with the ob- 
ligations under which those lands were ceded to the United 
States, to promote their speedy settlement, I beg leave to 
call the attention of the present Congress to the suggestions 
I have offered respecting it in my former messages. 

The extraordinary receipts from the sales of the public 
lands invite you to consider what improvements the land 
system, and particularly the condition of the General Land 
Office, may require. At the time this institution was or- 
ganized, near a quarter of a century ago, it would prob- 
ably have been thought extravagant to anticipate for this 
period such an addition to its business as has been produced 
iDy the vast increase of those sales during the past and pres- 
ent years. It may also be observed that since the year 181 2 
the land offices and surveying districts have been greatly 
multiplied, and that numerous legislative enactments from 
year to year since that time have imposed a great amount 
of new and additional duties upon that office, while the want 
of a timely application of force commensurate with the 
care and labor required has caused the increasing embar- 
rassment of accumulated arrears in the different branches of 
the establishment. 

These impediments to the expedition of much duty in 
the General Land Office induce me to submit to your judg- 



Seventh Annual Message 421 

ment whether some modification of the laws relating to its 
organization, or an organization of a new character, be not 
called for at the present juncture, to enable the office to 
accomplish all the ends of its institution with a greater de- 
gree of facility and promptitude than experience has proved 
to be practicable under existing regulations. The variety 
of the concerns and the magnitude and complexity of the 
details occupying and dividing the attention of the Commis- 
sioner appear to render it difficult, if not impracticable, for 
that officer by any possible assiduity to bestow on all the 
multifarious subjects upon which he is called to act the 
ready and careful attention due to their respective impor- 
tance, unless the Legislature shall assist him by a law pro- 
viding, or enabling him to provide, for a more regular and 
economical distribution of labor, with the incident responsi- 
bility among those employed under his direction. The mere 
manual operation of affixing his signature to the vast num- 
ber of documents issuing from his office subtracts so largely 
from the time and attention claimed by the weighty and 
complicated subjects daily accumulating in that branch of 
the public service as to indicate the strong necessity of re- 
vising the organic law of the establishment. It will be 
easy for Congress hereafter to proportion the expenditure 
on account of this branch of the service to its real wants by 
abolishing from time to time the offices which can be dis- 
pensed with. 

The extinction of the public debt having taken place, 
there is no longer any use for the offices of Commissioners 
of Loans and of the Sinking Fund. I recommend, there- 
fore, that they be abolished, and that proper measures be 
taken for the transfer to the Treasury Department of any 
funds, books, and papers connected with the operations of 
those offices, and that the proper power be given to that 
Department for closing finally any portion of their busi- 
ness which may remain to be settled. 

It is also incumbent on Congress in guarding the pecuni- 
ary interests of the country to discontinue by such a law as 
was passed in 1812 the receipt of the bills of the Bank of 



422 Andrew Jackson 

the United States in payment of the public revenue, and to 
provide for the designation of an agent whose duty it shall 
be to take charge of the books and stock of the United 
States in that institution, and to close all connection with 
it after the 3d of March, 1836, when its charter expires. In 
making provision in regard to the disposition of this stock 
it will be essential to define clearly and strictly the duties 
and powers of the officer charged with that branch of the 
public service. 

It will be seen from the correspondence which the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury will lay before you that notwith- 
standing the large amount of the stock which the United 
States hold in that institution no information has yet been 
communicated which will enable the Government to antici- 
pate when it can receive any dividends or derive any bene- 
fit from it. 

Connected with the condition of the finances and the 
flourishing state of the country in all its branches of indus- 
try, it is pleasing to witness the advantages which have been 
already derived from the recent laws regulating the value 
of the gold coinage. These advantages will be more ap- 
parent in the course of the next year, when the branch mints 
authorized to be established in North Carolina, Georgia, 
and Louisiana shall have gone into operation. Aided, as it 
is hoped they will be, by further reforms in the banking 
systems of the States and by judicious regulations on the 
part of Congress in relation to the custody of the public 
moneys, it may be confidently anticipated that the use of 
gold and silver as a circulating medium will become general 
in the ordinary transactions connected with the labor of the 
country. The great desideratum in modern times is an ef- 
ficient check upon the power of banks, preventing that ex- 
cessive issue of paper whence arise those fluctuations in tlie 
standard of value which render uncertain the rewards of 
labor. It was supposed by those who established the Bank 
of the United States that from the credit given to it by 
the custody of the public moneys and other privileges and 
the precautions taken to guard against the evils which the 



Seventh Annual Message 423 

country had suffered in the bankruptcy of many of the 
State institutions of that period we should derive from that 
institution all the security and benefits of a sound currency 
and every good end that was attainable under that provi- 
sion of the Constitution which authorizes Congress alone 
to coin money and regulate the value thereof. But it is 
scarcely necessary now to say that these anticipations have 
not been realized. 

After the extensive embarrassment and distress recently 
produced by the Bank of the United States, from which the 
country is now recovering, aggravated as they were by 
pretensions to power which defied the public authority, and 
which if acquiesced in by the people would have changed 
the whole character of our Government, every candid and 
intelligent individual must admit that for the attainment 
of the great advantages of a sound currency we must look 
to a course of legislation radically different from that which 
created such an institution. 

In considering the means of obtaining so important an 
end we must set aside all calculations of temporary con- 
venience, and be influenced by those only which are in 
harmony with the true character and the permanent inter- 
ests of the Republic. We must recur to first principles and 
see what it is that has prevented the legislation of Con- 
gress and the States on the subject of currency from satis- 
fying the public expectation and realizing results corre- 
sponding to those which have attended the action of our 
system when truly consistent with the great principle of 
equality upon which it rests, and with that spirit of for- 
bearance and mutual concession and generous patriotism 
which was originally, and must ever continue to be, the 
vital element of our Union. 

On this subject I am sure that I can not be mistaken in 
ascribing our want of success to the undue countenance 
which has been afforded to the spirit of monopoly. All 
the serious dangers which our system has yet encountered 
may be traced to the resort to implied powers and the use 
of corporations clothed with privileges, the effect of which 



424 Andrew Jackson 

is to advance the interests of the few at the expense of 
the many. We have felt but one class of these dangers 
exhibited in the contest waged by the Bank of the United 
States against the Government for the last four years. 
Happily they have been obviated for the present by the 
indignant resistance of the people, but we should recol- 
lect that the principle whence they sprung is an ever-active 
one, which will not fail to renew its efforts in the same 
and in other forms so long as there is a hope of success, 
founded either on the inattention of the people or the 
treachery of their representatives to the subtle progress of 
its influence. The bank is, in fact, but one of the fruits 
of a system at war with the genius of all our institutions — 
a system founded upon a political creed the fundamental 
principle of which is a distrust of the popular will as a 
safe regulator of political power, and whose great ultimate 
object and inevitable result, should it prevail, is the con- 
solidation of all power in our system in one central gov- 
ernment. Lavish public disbursements and corporations 
with exclusive privileges would be its substitutes for the 
original and as yet sound checks and balances of the Con- 
stitution — the means by whose silent and secret operation 
a control would be exercised by the few over the political 
conduct of the many by first acquiring that control over 
the labor and earnings of the great body of the people. 
Wherever this spirit has effected an alliance with political 
power, tyranny and despotism have been the fruit. If it is 
ever used for the ends of government, it has to be inces- 
santly watched, or it corrupts the sources of the public 
virtue and agitates the country with questions unfavorable 
to the harmonious and steady pursuit of its true interests. 

We are now to see whether, in the present favorable con- 
dition of the country, we can not take an effectual stand 
against this spirit of monopoly, and practically prove in 
respect to the currency as well as other important interests 
that there is no necessity for so extensive a resort to it 
as that which has been heretofore practiced. The experi- 
ence of another year has confirmed the utter fallacy of the 



Seventh Annual Message 4^5 

idea that the Bank of the United States was necessary as 
a fiscal agent of the Government. Without its aid as such, 
indeed, in despite of all the embarrassment it was in its 
power to create, the revenue has been paid with punctuality 
by our citizens, the business of exchange, both foreign and 
domestic, has been conducted with convenience, and the 
circulating medium has been greatly improved. By the use 
of the State banks, which do not derive their charters from 
the General Government and are not controlled by its au- 
thority, it is ascertained that the moneys of the United 
States can be collected and disbursed without loss or incon- 
venience, and that all the wants of the community in rela- 
tion to exchange and currency are supplied as well as 
they have ever been before. If under circumstances the 
most unfavorable to the steadiness of the money market it 
has been found that the considerations on which the Bank 
of the United States rested its claims to the public favor 
were imaginary and groundless, it can not be doubted 
that the experience of the future will be more decisive 
against them. 

It has been seen that without the agency of a great 
moneyed monopoly the revenue can be collected and con- 
veniently and safely applied to all the purposes of the pub- 
lic expenditure. It is also ascertained that instead of being 
necessarily made to promote the evils of an unchecked paper 
system, the management of the revenue can be made aux- 
iliary to the reform which the legislatures of several of the 
States have already commenced in regard to the suppres- 
sion of small bills, and which has only to be fostered by 
proper regulations on the part of "Congress to secure a prac- 
tical return to the extent required for the security of the 
currency to the constitutional medium. Severed from the 
Government as political engines, and not susceptible of dan- 
gerous extension and combination, the State banks will not 
be tempted, nor will they have the power, which we have 
seen exercised, to divert the public funds from the legiti- 
mate purposes of the Government. The collection and cus- 
tody of the revenue, being, on the contrary, a source of 



426 Andrew Jackson 

credit to them, will increase the security which the States 
provide for a faithful execution of their trusts by multiply- 
ing the scrutinies to which their operations and accounts 
will be subjected. Thus disposed, as well from interest 
as the obligations of their charters, it can not be doubted 
that such conditions as Congress may see fit to adopt re- 
specting the deposits in these institutions, with a view to 
the gradual disuse, of the small bills will be cheerfully com- 
plied with, and that we shall soon gain in place of the Bank 
of the United States a practical reform in the whole paper 
system of the country. If by this policy we can ultimately 
witness the suppression of all bank bills below $20, it is 
apparent that gold and silver will take their place and be- 
come the principal circulating medium in the common busi- 
ness of the farmers and mechanics of the country. The 
attainment of such a result will form an era in the history 
of our country which will be dwelt upon with delight by 
every true friend of its liberty and independence. It will 
lighten the great tax which our paper system has so long 
collected from the earnings of labor, and do more to revive 
and perpetuate those habits of economy and simplicity 
which are so congenial to the character of republicans than 
all the legislation which has yet been attempted. 

To this subject I feel that I can not too earnestly invite 
the special attention of Congress, without the exercise of 
whose authority the opportunity to accomplish so much 
public good must pass unimproved. Deeply impressed with 
its vital importance, the Executive has taken all the steps 
within his constitutional power to guard the public revenue 
and defeat the expectation which the Bank of the United 
States indulged of renewing and perpetuating its monopoly 
on the ground of its necessity as a fiscal agent and as afford- 
ing a sounder currency than could be obtained without such 
an institution. In the performance of this duty much 
responsibility was incurred which would have been gladly 
avoided if the stake which the public had in the question 
could have been otherwise preserved. Although clothed 
with the legal authority and supported by precedent, I was 



Seventh Annual Message 427 

aware that there was in the act of the removal of the de- 
posits a Habihty to excite that sensitiveness to Executive 
power which it is the characteristic and the duty of freemen 
to indulge; but I relied on this feeling also, directed 1)y 
patriotism and intelligence, to vindicate the conduct which 
in the end would appear to have been called for by the 
best interests of my country. The apprehensions natural 
to this feeding that there may have been a desire, through 
the instrumentality of that measure, to extend the Execu- 
tive influence, or that it may have been prompted by motives 
not sufficiently free from ambition, were not overlooked. 
Under the operation of our institutions the public servant 
who is called on to take a step of high responsibility should 
feel in the freedom which gives rise to such apprehensions 
his highest security. When unfounded the attention which 
they arouse and the discussions they excite deprive those 
who indulge them of the power to do harm; when just 
they but hasten the certainty with which the great body of 
our citizens never fail to repel an attempt to procure their 
sanction to any exercise of power inconsistent with the 
jealous maintenance of their rights. Under such convic- 
tions, and entertaining no doubt that my constitutional obH- 
gations demanded the steps which were taken in reference 
to the removal of the deposits, it was impossible for me to 
be deterred from the path of duty by a fear that my motives 
could be misjudged or that political prejudices could defeat 
the just consideration of the merits of my conduct. The 
result has shewn how safe is this reliance upon the pa- 
triotic temper and enlightened discernment of the people. 
That measure has now been before them and has stood the 
test of all the severe analysis which its general importance, 
the interests it affected, and the apprehensions it excited 
were calculated to produce, and it now remains for Con- 
gress to consider what legislation has become necessary in 
consequence. 

I need only add to what I have on former occasions said 
on this subject generally that in the regulations which Con- 
gress may prescribe respecting the custody of the public 



428 Andrew Jackson 

moneys it is desirable that as little discretion as may be 
deemed consistent with their safe-keeping should be given 
to the executive agents. No one can be more deeply im- 
pressed than I am with the soundness of the doctrine which 
restrains and limits, by specific provisions, executive dis- 
cretion, as far as it can be done consistently with the pres- 
ervation of its constitutional character. In respect to the 
control over the public money this doctrine is peculiarly 
applicable, and is in harmony with the great principle which 
I felt I was sustaining in the controversy with the Bank of 
the United States, which has resulted in severing to some 
extent a dangerous connection between a moneyed and po- 
litical power. The duty of the Legislature to define, by 
clear and positive enactments, the nature and extent of the 
action which it belongs to the Executive to superintend 
springs out of a policy analogous to that which enjoins 
upon all the branches of the Federal Government an absti- 
nence from the exercise of powers not clearly granted. 

In such a Government, possessing only limited and spe- 
cific powers, the spirit of its general administration can not 
be wise or just when it opposes the reference of all doubt- 
ful points to the great source of authority, the States and 
the people, whose number and diversified relations, secur- 
ing them against the influences and excitements which may 
mislead their agents, make them the safest depository of 
power. In its application to the Executive, with reference 
to the legislative branch of the Government, the same rule of 
action should make the President ever anxious to avoid the 
exercise of any discretionary authority which can be regu- 
lated by Congress. The biases which may operate upon 
him will not be so likely to extend to the representatives 
of the people in that body. 

In my former messages to Congress I have repeatedly 
urged the propriety of lessening the discretionary authority 
lodged in the various Departments, but it has produced no 
effect as yet, except the discontinuance of extra allowances 
in the Army and Navy and the substitution of fixed salaries 
in the latter. It is believed that the same principles could 



Seventh Annual Message 429 

be advantageously applied in all cases, and would promote 
the efficiency and economy of the public service, at the same 
time that greater satisfaction and more equal justice would 
be secured to the public officers generally. 

The accompanying report of the Secretary of War will 
put you in possession of the operations of the Department 
confided to his care in all its diversified relations during the 
past year. 

I am gratified in being able to inform you that no occur- 
rence has required any movement of the military force, 
except such as is common to a state of peace. The services 
of the Army have been limited to their usual duties at the 
various garrisons upon the Atlantic and inland frontier, 
with the exceptions stated by the Secretary of War. Our 
small military establishment appears to be adequate to the 
purposes for which it is maintained, and it forms a nucleus 
around which any additional force may be collected should 
the public exigencies unfortunately require any increase of 
our military means. 

The various acts of Congress which have been recently 
passed in relation to the Army have improved its condition, 
and have rendered its organization more useful and effi- 
cient. It is at all times in a state for prompt and vigorous 
action, and it contains within itself the power of extension 
to any useful limit, while at the same time it preserves that 
knowledge, both theoretical and practical, which education 
and experience alone can give, and which, if not acquired 
and preserved in time of peace, must be sought under great 
disadvantages in time of war. 

The duties of the Engineer Corps press heavily upon that 
branch of the service, and the public interest requires an 
addition to its strength. The nature of the works in which 
the officers are engaged renders necessary professional 
knowledge and experience, and there is no economy in com- 
mitting to them more duties than they can perform or in 
assigning these to other persons temporarily employed, and 
too often of necessity without all the qualifications which 
such service demands. I recommend this subject to your 



43^ Andrew Jackson 

attention, and also the proposition submitted at the last ses- 
sion of Congress and now renewed, for a reorganization of 
the Topographical Corps. This reorganization can be ef- 
fected without any addition to the present expenditure and 
with much advantage to the .public service. The branch of 
duties which devolves upon these officers is at all times in- 
teresting to the community, and the information furnished 
by them is useful in peace and war. 

Much loss and inconvenience have been experienced in 
consequence of the failure of the bill containing the ordinary 
appropriations for fortifications which passed one branch of 
the National Legislature at the last session, but was lost in 
the other. This failure was the more regretted not only be- 
cause it necessarily interrupted and delayed the progress of 
a system of national defense, projected immediately after 
the last war and since steadily pursued, but also because it 
contained a contingent appropriation, inserted in accordance 
with the views of the Executive, in aid of this important 
object and other branches of the national defense, some por- 
tions of which might have been most usefully applied during 
the past season. I invite your early attention to that part 
of the report of the Secretary of War which relates to this 
subject, and recommend an appropriation sufficiently liberal 
to accelerate the armament of the fortifications agreeably to 
the proposition submitted by him, and to place our whole 
Atlantic seaboard in a complete state of defense, A just 
regard to the permanent interests of the country evidently 
requires this measure, but there are also other reasons which 
at the present juncture give it peculiar force and make it my 
duty to call to the subject your special consideration. 

The present system of military education has been in oper- 
ation sufficiently long to test its usefulness, and it has given 
to the Army a valuable tody of officers. It is not alone in 
the improvement, discipline, and operation of the troops that 
these officers are employed. They are also extensively en- 
gaged in the administrative and fiscal concerns of the various 
matters confided to the War Department; in the execution 
of the staff duties usually appertaining to military organiza- 



Seventh Annual Message 43 1 

tion ; in the removal of the Indians and in the disbursement 
of the various expenditures growing out of our Indian rela- 
tions ; in the formation of roads and in the improvement of 
harbors and rivers; in the construction of fortifications, in 
the fabrication of much of the materiel required for the pub- 
lic defense, and in the preservation, distribution, and ac- 
countability of the whole, and in other miscellaneous duties 
not admitting of classification. 

These diversified functions embrace very heavy expendi- 
tures of public money, and require fidelity, science, and busi- 
ness habits in their execution, and a system which shall 
secure these qualifications is demanded by the public inter- 
est. That this object has been in a great measure obtained 
by the Military Academy is shewn by the state of the service 
and by the prompt accountability which has generally fol- 
lowed the necessary advances. Like all other political sys- 
tems, the present mode of military education no doubt has 
its imperfections, both of principle and practice ; but I trust 
these can be improved by rigid inspections and by legislative 
scrutiny without destroying the institution itself. 

Occurrences to which we as well as all other nations are 
liable, both in our internal and external relations, point to 
the necessity of an efficient organization of the militia. I 
am again induced by the importance of the subject to bring 
it to your attention. To suppress domestic violence and to 
repel foreign invasion, should these calamities overtake us, 
we must rely in the first instance upon the great body of the 
community whose will has instituted and whose power must 
support the Government. A large standing military force 
is not consonant to the spirit of our institutions nor to the 
feelings of our countrymen, and the lessons of former days 
and those also of our own times shew the danger as well as 
the enormous expense of these permanent and extensive mil- 
itary organizations. That just medium which avoids an in- 
adequate preparation on one hand and the danger and ex- 
pense of a large force on the other is what our constituents 
have a right to expect from their Government. This object 
can be attained only by the maintenance of a small military 



43^ Andrew Jackson 

force and by such an organization of the physical strength 
of the country as may bring this power into operation when- 
ever its services are required, A classification of the popu- 
lation offers the most obvious means of effecting this or- 
ganization. Such a division may be made as will be just to 
all by transferring each at a proper period of life from one 
class to another and by calling first for the services of that 
class, whether for instruction or action, W'hich from age is 
qualified for the duty and may be called to perform it wdth 
least injury to themselves or to the public. Should the dan- 
ger ever become so imminent as to require additional force, 
the other classes in succession would be ready for the call. 
And if in addition to this organization voluntary associa- 
tions were encouraged and inducements held out for their 
formation, our militia would be in a state of efficient service. 
Now, when we are at peace, is the proper time to digest and 
establish a practicable system. The object is certainly worth 
the experiment and worth the expense. No one appreciating 
the blessings of a republican government can object to his 
share of the burden which such a plan may impose. Indeed, 
a moderate portion of the national funds could scarcely be 
better applied than in carrying into effect and continuing 
such an arrangement, and in giving the necessary elemen- 
tary instruction. We are happily at peace with all the world. 
A sincere desire to continue so and a fixed determination to 
give no just cause of offense to other nations furnish, un- 
fortunately, no certain grounds of expectation that this re- 
lation will be uninterrupted. With this determination to 
give no offense is associated a resolution, equally decided, 
tamely to submit to none. The armor and the attitude of 
defense afford the best security against those collisions 
which the ambition, or interest, or some other passion of 
nations not more justifiable is liable to produce. In many 
countries it is considered unsafe to put arms into the hands 
of the people and to instruct them in the elements of military 
knowledge. That fear can have no place here when it is 
recollected that the people are the sovereign power. Our 
Government was instituted and is supported by the ballot 



Seventh Annual Message 433 

box, not by the musket. Whatever changes await it, still 
greater changes must be made in our social institutions be- 
fore our political system can yield to physical force. In 
every aspect, therefore, in which I can view the subject I am 
impressed with the importance of a prompt and efficient 
organization of the militia. 

The plan of removing the aboriginal people who yet re- 
main within the settled portions of the United States to the 
country west of the Mississippi River approaches its con- 
summation. It was adopted on the most mature considera- 
tion of the condition of this race, and ought to be persisted 
in till the object is accomplished, and prosecuted with as 
much vigor as a just regard to their circumstances will per- 
mit, and as fast as their consent can be obtained. All pre- 
ceding experiments for the improvement of the Indians have 
failed. It seems now to be an established fact that they can 
not live in contact with a civilized community and prosper. 
Ages of fruitless endeavors have at length brought us to a 
knowledge of this principle of intercommunication with 
them. The past we can not recall, but the future we can 
provide for. Independently of the treaty stipulations into 
which we have entered with the various tribes for the usu- 
fructuary rights they have ceded to us, no one can doubt the 
moral duty of the Government of the United States to pro- 
tect and if possible to preserve and perpetuate the scattered 
remnants of this race which are left within our borders. In 
the discharge of this duty an extensive region in the West 
has been assigned for their permanent residence. It has been 
divided into districts and allotted among them. Many have 
already removed and others are preparing to go, and with 
the exception of two small bands living in Ohio and Indiana, 
not exceeding 1,500 persons, and of the Cherokecs, all the 
tribes on the east side of the Mississippi, and extending from 
Lake Michigan to Florida, have entered into engagements 
which will lead to their transplantation. 

The plan for their removal and reestablishment is founded 
upon the knowledge we have gained of their character and 
habits, and has been dictated by a spirit of enlarged liber- 



434 Andrew Jackson 

ality. A territory exceeding in extent that relinquished has 
been granted to each tribe. Of its climate, fertility, and 
capacity to support an Indian population the representations 
are highly favorable. To these districts the Indians are re- 
moved at the expense of the United States, and with certain 
supplies of clothing, arms, ammunition, and other indis- 
pensable articles; they are also furnished gratuitously with 
provisions for the period of a year after their arrival at their 
new homes. In that time, from the nature of the country 
and of the products raised by them, they can subsist them- 
selves by agricultural labor, if they choose to resort to that 
mode of life; if they do not they are upon the skirts of the 
great prairies, where countless herds of buffalo roam, and 
a short time suffices to adapt their own habits to the changes 
which a change of the animals destined for their food may 
require. Ample arrangements have also been made for the 
support of schools; in some instances council houses and 
churches are to be erected, dwellings constructed for the 
chiefs, and mills for common use. Funds have been set 
apart for the maintenance of the poor; the most necessary 
mechanical arts have been introduced, and blacksmiths, 
gunsmiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, etc., are supported 
among them. Steel and iron, and sometimes salt, are pur- 
chased for them, and plows and other farming utensils, do- 
mestic animals, looms, spinning wheels, cards, etc., are 
presented to them. And besides these beneficial arrange- 
ments, annuities are in all cases paid, amounting in some 
instances to more than $30 for each individual of the tribe, 
and in all cases sufficiently great, if justly divided and 
prudently expended, to enable them, in addition to their 
own exertions, to live comfortably. And as a stimulus for 
exertion, it is now provided by law that " in all cases of the 
appointment of interpreters or other persons employed for 
the benefit of the Indians a preference shall be given to 
persons of Indian descent, if such can be found who are 
properly qualified for the discharge of the duties." 

Such are the arrangements for the physical comfort and 
for the moral improvement of the Indians. The necessary 



Seventh Annual Message 435 

measures for their political advancement and for their sepa- 
ration from our citizens have not been neglected. The 
pledge of the United States has been given by Congress 
that the country destined for the residence of this people 
shall be forever " secured and guaranteed to them." A 
country west of Missouri and Arkansas has been assigned 
to them, into which the white settlements are not to be 
pushed. No political communities can be formed in that 
extensive region, except those which are established by 
the Indians themselves or by the United States for them 
and with their concurrence. A barrier has thus been raised 
for their protection against the encroachment of our citi- 
zens, and guarding the Indians as far as possible from those 
evils which have brought them to their present condition. 
Summary authority has been given by law to destroy all 
ardent spirits found in their country, without waiting the 
doubtful result and slow process of a legal seizure. I con- 
sider the absolute and unconditional interdiction of this 
article among these people as the first and great step in their 
melioration. Halfway measures will answer no purpose. 
These can not successfully contend against the cupidity of 
the seller and the overpowering appetite of the buyer. And 
the destructive effects of the traffic are marked in every 
page of the history of our Indian intercourse. 

Some general legislation seems necessary for the regula- 
tion of the relations which will exist in this new state of 
things between the Government and people of the United 
States and these transplanted Indian tribes, and for the 
establishment among the latter, and with their own consent, 
of some principles of intercommunication which their juxta- 
position will call for; that moral may be substituted for 
physical force, the authority of a few and simple laws for 
the tomahawk, and that an end may be put to those bloody 
wars whose prosecution seems to have made part of their 

social system. 

After the further details of this arrangement are com- 
pleted, with a very general supervision over them, they 
ought to be left to the progress of events. These, I indulge 



43^ Andrew Jackson 

the hope, will secure their prosperity and improvement, and 
a large portion of the moral debt we owe them will then 
be paid. 

The report from the Secretary of the Navy, shewing the 
condition of that branch of the public service, is recom- 
mended to your special attention. It appears from it that 
our naval force at present in commission, with all the ac- 
tivity which can be given to it, is inadequate to the protec- 
tion of our rapidly increasing commerce. This considera- 
tion and the more general one which regards this arm of 
the national defense as our best security against foreign 
aggressions strongly urge the continuance of the measures 
which promote its gradual enlargement and a speedy in- 
crease of the force which has been heretofore employed 
abroad and at home. You will perceive from the estimates 
which appear in the report of the Secretary of the Navy 
that the expenditures necessary to this increase of its force, 
though of considerable amount, are small compared with 
the benefits which they will secure to the country. 

As a means of strengthening this national arm I also 
recommend to your particular attention the propriety of the 
suggestion which attracted the consideration of Congress 
at its last session, respecting the enlistment of boys at a 
suitable age in the service. In this manner a nursery of 
skillful and able-bodied seamen can be established, which 
will be of the greatest importance. Next to the capacity to 
put afloat and arm the requisite number of ships is the pos- 
session of the means to man them efficiently, and nothing 
seems better calculated to aid this object than the measure 
proposed. As an auxiliary to the advantages derived from 
our extensive commercial marine, it would furnish us with 
a resource ample enough for all the exigencies which can 
be anticipated. Considering the state of our resources, it 
can not be doubted that whatever provision the liberality 
and wisdom of Congress may now adopt with a view to the 
perfect organization of this branch of our service will meet 
the approbation of all classes of our citizens. 

By the report of the Postmaster-General it appears that 



I 



Seventh Annual Message 437 

the revenue of the Department during the year ending on the 
30th day of June last exceeded its accruing responsibiHties 
$236,206, and that the surplus of the present fiscal year is 
estimated at $476,227. It further appears that the debt of 
the Department on the ist day of July last, including the 
amount due to contractors for the quarter then just expired, 
was about $1,064,381, exceeding the available means about 
$23,700; and that on the ist instant about $597,077 of this 
debt had been paid — $409,991 out of postages accruing 
before July and $187,086 out of postages accruing since. 
In these payments are included $67,000 of the old debt due 
to banks. After making these payments the Department 
had $73,000 in bank on the ist instant. The pleasing as- 
surance is given that the Department is entirely free from 
embarrassment, and that by collection of outstanding bal- 
ances and using the current surplus the remaining portion 
of the bank debt and most of the other debt will probably 
be paid in April next, leaving thereafter a heavy amount to 
be applied in extending the mail facilities of the country. 
Reserving a considerable sum for the improvement of exist- 
ing mail routes, it is stated that the Department will be able 
to sustain with perfect convenience an annual charge of 
$300,000 for the support of new routes, to commence as 
soon as they can be established and put in operation. 

The measures adopted by the Postmaster-General to 
bring the means of the Department into action and to effect 
a speedy extinguishment of its debt, as well as to produce 
an efficient administration of its affairs, will be found de- 
tailed at length in his able and luminous report. Aided 
by a reorganization on the principles suggested and such 
salutary provisions in the laws regulating its administra- 
tive duties as the wisdom of Congress may devise or ap- 
prove, that important Department will soon attain a degree 
of usefulness proportioned to the increase of our population 
and the extension of our settlements. 

Particular attention is solicited to that portion of the 
report of the Postmaster-General which relates to the car- 
riao-e of the mails of the United States upon railroads con- 



43^ Andrew Jackson 

structed by private corporations under the authority of the 
several States. The reHance which the General Govern- 
ment can place on those roads as a means of carrying on 
its operations and the principles on which the use of them 
is to be obtained can not too soon be considered and set- 
tled. Already does the spirit of monopoly begin to exhibit 
its natural propensities in attempts to exact from the public, 
for services which it supposes can not be obtained on other 
terms, the most extravagant compensation. If these claims 
be persisted in, the question may arise whether a combina- 
tion of citizens, acting under charters of incorporation from 
the States, can, by a direct refusal or the demand of an 
exorbitant price, exclude the United States from the use of 
the established channels of communication between the dif- 
ferent sections of the country, and whether the United 
States can not, without transcending their constitutional 
powers, secure to the Post-Office Department the use of 
those roads by an act of Congress which shall provide 
within itself some equitable mode of adjusting the amount 
of compensation. To obviate, if possible, the necessity of 
considering this question, it is suggested whether it be not 
expedient to fix by law the amounts which shall be offered 
to railroad companies for the conveyance of the mails, 
graduated according to their average weight, to be ascer- 
tained and declared by the Postmaster-General. It is prob- 
able that a liberal proposition of that sort would be accepted. 
In connection with these provisions in relation to the 
Post-Office Department, I must also invite your attention 
to the painful excitement produced in the South by attempts 
to circulate through the mails inflammatory appeals ad- 
dressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints and in various 
sorts of publications, calculated to stimulate them to insur- 
rection and to produce all the horrors of a servile war. 
There is doubtless no respectable portion of our country- 
men who can be so far misled as to feel any other sentiment 
than that of indignant regret at conduct so destructive of 
the harmony and peace of the country, and so repugnant 
to the principles of our national compact and to the dictates 



Seventh Annual Message 439 

of humanity and religion. Our happiness and prosperity 
essentially depend upon peace within our borders, and peace 
depends upon the maintenance in good faith of those com- 
promises of the Constitution upon which the Union is 
founded. It is fortunate for the country that the good 
sense, the generous feeling, and the deep-rooted attachment 
of the people of the nonslaveholding States to the Union 
and to their fellow-citizens of the same blood in the South 
have given so strong and impressive a tone to the sentiments 
entertained against the proceedings of the misguided per- 
sons who have engaged in these unconstitutional and wicked 
attempts, and especially against the emissaries from foreign 
parts who have dared to interfere in this matter, as to au- 
thorize the hope that those attempts will no longer be per- 
sisted in. But if these expressions of the public will shall 
not be sufficient to effect so desirable a result, not a doubt 
can be entertained that the nonslaveholding States, so far 
from countenancing the slightest interference with the con- 
stitutional rights of the South, will be prompt to exercise 
their authority in suppressing so far as in them lies what- 
ever is calculated to produce this evil. 

In leaving the care of other branches of this interesting 
subject to the State authorities, to whom they properly 
belong, it is nevertheless proper for Congress to take such 
measures as will prevent the Post-Office Department, which 
was designed to foster an amicable intercourse and corre- 
spondence between all the members of the Confederacy, 
from being used as an instrument of an opposite character. 
The General Government, to which the great trust is con- 
fided of preserving inviolate the relations created among 
the States by the Constitution, is especially bound to avoid 
in its own action anything that may disturb them. I would 
therefore call the special attention of Congress to the sub- 
ject, and respectfully suggest the propriety of passing such 
a law as will prohibit, under severe penalties, the circulation 
in the Southern States, through the mail, of incendiary 
publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection. 

I felt it to be my duty in the first message which I com- 



44° Andrew Jackson 

municated to Congress to urge upon its attention the 
propriety of amending that part of the Constitution which 
provides for the election of the President and Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. The leading object which I had 
in view was the adoption of some new provisions which 
would secure to the people the performance of this high 
duty without any intermediate agency. In my annual com- 
munications since I have enforced the same views, from a 
sincere conviction that the best interests of the country 
would be promoted by their adoption. If the subject were 
an ordinary one, I should have regarded the failure of Con- 
gress to act upon it as an indication of their judgment that 
the disadvantages which belong to the present system were 
not so great as those which would result from any attainable 
substitute that had been submitted to their consideration. 
Recollecting, however, that propositions to introduce a new 
feature in our fundamental laws can not be too patiently 
examined, and ought not to be received with favor until the 
great body of the people are thoroughly impressed with 
their necessity and value as a remedy for real evils, I feel 
that in renewing the recommendation I have heretofore 
made on this subject I am not transcending the bounds of a 
just deference to the sense of Congress or to the disposi- 
tion of the people. However much we may differ in the 
choice of the measures which should guide the administra- 
tion of the Government, there can be but little doubt in the 
minds of those who are really friendly to the republican 
features of our system that one of its most important se- 
curities consists in the separation of the legislative and 
executive powers at the same time that each is held respon- 
sible to the great source of authority, which is acknowl- 
edged to be supreme, in the will of the people constitution- 
ally expressed. My reflection and experience satisfy me 
that the framers of the Constitution, although they were 
anxious to mark this feature as a settled and fixed princi- 
ple in the structure of the Government, did not adopt all 
the precautions that were necessary to secure its practical 
observance, and that we can not be said to have carried into 



Seventh Annual Message 44 1 

complete effect their intentions until the evils which arise 
from this organic defect are remedied. 

Considering the great extent of our Confederacy, the 
rapid increase of its population, and the diversity of their 
interests and pursuits, it can not be disguised that the con- 
tingency by which one branch of the Legislature is to form 
itself into an electoral college can not become one of ordi- 
nary occurrence without producing incalculable mischief. 
What was intended as the medicine of the Constitution in 
extreme cases can not be frequently used without changing 
its character and sooner or later producing incurable dis- 
order. 

Every election by the House of Representatives is calcu- 
lated to lessen the force of that security which is derived 
from the distinct and separate character of the legislative 
and executive functions, and while it exposes each to temp- 
tations adverse to their efficiency as organs of the Constitu- 
tion and laws, its tendency will be to unite both in resisting 
the will of the people, and thus give a direction to the Gov- 
ernment antirepublican and dangerous. All history tells 
us that a free people should be watchful of delegated power, 
and should never acquiesce in a practice which will dimin- 
ish their control over it. This obligation, so universal in 
its application to all the principles of a republic, is peculiarly 
so in ours, where the formation of parties founded on sec- 
tional interests is so much fostered by the extent of our 
territory. These interests, represented by candidates for 
the Presidency, are constantly prone, in the zeal of party 
and selfish objects, to generate influences unmindful of the 
general good and forgetful of the restraints which the great 
body of the people would enforce if they were in no con- 
tingency to lose the right of expressing their will. The 
experience of our country from the formation of the Gov- 
ernment to the present day demonstrates that the people can 
not too soon adopt some stronger safeguard for their right 
to elect the highest officers known to the Constitution than 
is contained in that sacred instrument as it now stands. 

It is my duty to call the particular attention of Congress 



442 Andrew Jackson 

to the present condition of the District of Columbia. From 
whatever cause the great depression has arisen which now 
exists in the pecuniary concerns of this District, it is proper 
that its situation should be fully understood and such relief 
or remedies provided as are consistent with the powers of 
Congress. I earnestly recommend the extension of every 
political right to the citizens of this District which their 
true interests require, and which does not conflict with the 
provisions of the Constitution. It is believed that the laws 
for the government of the District require revisal and 
amendment, and that much good may be done by modify- 
ing the penal code so as to give uniformity to its provisions. 

Your attention is also invited to the defects which exist 
in the judicial system of the United States. As at present 
organized the States of the Union derive unequal advan- 
tages from the Federal judiciary, which have been so often 
pointed out that I deem it unnecessary to repeat them here. 
It is hoped that the present Congress will extend to all the 
States that equality in respect to the benefits of the laws 
of the Union which can only be secured by the uniformity 
and efficiency of the judicial system. 

With these observations on the topics of general interest 
which are deemed worthy of your consideration, I leave 
them to your care, trusting that the legislative measures 
they call for will be met as the wants and the best interests 
of our beloved country demand. 



Message on Affairs with France.* 

(January 15, 1836.) 

To the Senate and House of Representatives, Gentle- 
men: In my message at the opening of your session I in- 
formed you that our charge d'affaires at Paris had been 
instructed to ask for the final determination of the French 
Government in relation to the payment of the indemnifica- 
tion secured by the treaty of the 4th of July, 183 1, and 
that when advices of the result should be received it would 
be made the subject of a special communication. 

In execution of this design I now transmit to you the 
papers numbered from i to 13, inclusive, containing among 
other things the correspondence on this subject between 
our charge d'affaires and the French minister of foreign 
affairs, from which it will be seen that France requires as 
a condition precedent to the execution of a treaty uncondi- 
tionally ratified and to the payment of a debt acknowledged 
by all the branches of her Government to be due that certain 
explanations shall be made of which she dictates the terms. 
These terms are such as that Government has already been 
officially informed can not be complied with, and if per- 
sisted in they must be considered as a deliberate refusal on 
the part of France to fulfill engagements binding by the 
laws of nations and held sacred by the whole civilized world. 
The nature of the act which France requires from this Gov- 
ernment is clearly set forth in the letter of the French min- 
ister marked No. 4. We will pay the money, says he, when 
" the Government of the United States is ready on its part 
to declare to us, by addressing its claim to us ofTicially in 
writing, that it regrets the misunderstanding which has 

♦This message ranks among the most notable American State 
papers on foreign relations. [Ed.] 

443 



444 Andrew Jackson 

arisen between the tzvo countries; that this misunderstand- 
ing is founded on a mistake; that it never entered its inten- 
tion to call in question the good faith of the French Govern- 
ment nor to take a menacing attitude toward France." 
And he adds : " // the Government of the United States 
does not give this assurance we shall be obliged to think 
that this misunderstanding is not the result of an error." 
In the letter marked No. 6 the French minister also remarks 
that " the Government of the United States knows that 
upon itself depends henceforward the execution of the treaty 
of July 4, 183 1." 

Obliged by the precise language thus used by the French 
minister to view it as a peremptory refusal to execute the 
treaty except on terms incompatible with the honor and 
independence of the United States, and persuaded that on 
considering the correspondence now submitted to you you 
can regard it in no other light, it becomes my duty to call 
your attention to such measures as the exigency of the case 
demands if the claim of interfering in the communications 
between the dififerent branches of our Government shall be 
persisted in. This pretension is rendered the more un- 
reasonable by the fact that the substance of the required 
explanation has been repeatedly and voluntarily given be- 
fore it was insisted on as a condition — a condition the more 
humiliating because it is demanded as the equivalent of a 
pecuniary consideration. Does France desire only a dec- 
laration that we had no intention to obtain our rights by 
an address to her fears rather than to her justice? She has 
already had it, frankly and explicitly given by our minister 
accredited to her Government, his act ratified by me, and 
my confirmation of it officially communicated by him in his 
letter to the French minister of foreign affairs of the 25th 
of April, 1835, and repeated by my published approval of 
that letter after the passage of the bill of indemnification. 
Does France want a degrading, servile repetition of this act, 
in terms which she shall dictate and which will involve an 
acknowledgment of her assumed right to interfere in our 
domestic councils? She will never obtain it. The spirit 



Message on Affairs with France 445 

of the American people, the dignity of the Legislature, and 
the firm resolve of their executive government forbid it. 

As the answer of the French minister to our charge 
d'affaires at Paris contains an allusion to a letter addressed 
by him to the representative of France at this place, it now 
becomes proper to lay before you the correspondence had 
between that functionary and the Secretary of State rela- 
tive to that letter, and to accompany the same with such 
explanations as will enable you to understand the course 
of the Executive in regard to it. Recurring to the histor- 
ical statement made at the commencement of your session, 
of the origin and progress of our difficulties with France, it 
will be recollected that on the return of our minister to the 
United States I caused my official approval of the explana- 
tions he had given to the French minister of foreign affairs 
to be made public. As the French Government had noticed 
the message without its being officially communicated, it 
was not doubted that if they were disposed to pay the money 
due to us they would notice any public explanation of the 
Government of the United States in the same way. But, 
contrary to these well-founded expectations, the French 
ministry did not take this fair opportunity to relieve them- 
selves from their unfortunate position and to do justice to 
the United States. 

Whilst, however, the Government of the United States 
was awaiting the movements of the French Government in 
perfect confidence that the difficulty was at an end, the Sec- 
retary of State received a call from the French charge 
d'affaires in Washington, who desired to read to him a let- 
ter he had received from the French minister of foreign 
affairs. He was asked whether he was instructed or di- 
rected to make any official communication, and replied that 
he was only authorized to read the letter and furnish a copy 
if requested. The substance of its contents, it is presumed, 
may be gathered from Nos. 4 and 6, herewith transmitted. 
It was an attempt to make known to the Government of the 
United States privately in what manner it could make ex- 
planations, apparently voluntary, but really dictated by 



44^ Andrew Jackson 

France, acceptable to her, and thus obtain payment of the 
25,000,000 francs. No exception was taken to this mode 
of communication, which is often used to prepare the way 
for official intercourse, but the suggestions made in it were 
in their substance wholly inadmissible. Not being in the 
shape of an official communication to this Government, it 
did not admit of reply or official notice, nor could it safely 
be made the basis of any action by the Executive or the 
Legislature, and the Secretary of State did not think proper 
to ask a copy, because he could have no use for it. Copies 
of papers marked Nos. 9, 10, and 11 shew an attempt on 
the part of the French charge d'affaires to place a copy of 
this letter among the archives of this Government, which 
for obvious reasons was not allowed to be done; but the 
assurance before given was repeated, that any official com- 
munication which he might be authorized to make in the 
accustomed form would receive a prompt and just consid- 
eration. The indiscretion of this attempt was made more 
manifest by the subsequent avowal of the French charge 
d'affaires that the object was to bring this letter before 
Congress and the American people. If foreign agents, on a 
subject of disagreement between their government and this, 
wish to prefer an appeal to the American people, they will 
hereafter, it is hoped, better appreciate their own rights and 
the respect due to others than to attempt to use the Execu- 
tive as the passive organ of their communications. 

It is due to the character of our institutions that the 
diplomatic intercourse of this Government should be con- 
ducted with the utmost directness and simplicity, and that 
in all cases of importance the communications received or 
made by the Executive should assume the accustomed official 
form. It is only by insisting on this form that foreign 
powers can be held to full responsibility, that their com- 
munications can be officially replied to, or that the advice 
or interference of the Legislature can with propriety be 
invited by the President. This course is also best calcu- 
lated, on the one hand, to shield that officer from unjust 
suspicions, and on the other to subject this portion of his 



Message on Affairs with France 447 

acts to public scrutiny, and, if occasion shall require it, to 
constitutional animadversion. It was the more necessary to 
adhere to these principles in the instance in question inas- 
much as, in addition to other important interests, it very 
intimately concerned the national honor — a matter in my 
judgment much too sacred to be made the subject of private 
and unofficial negotiation. 

It will be perceived that this letter of the French min- 
ister of foreign affairs was read to the Secretary of State 
on the I ith of September last. This was the first authentic 
indication of the specific views of the French Government 
received by the Government of the United States after the 
passage of the bill of indemnification. Inasmuch as the 
letter had been written before the official notice of my ap- 
proval of Mr. Livingston's last explanation and remon- 
strance could have reached Paris, just ground of hope was 
left, as has been before stated, that the French Government, 
on receiving that information in the same manner as the 
alleged offensive message had reached them, would desist 
from their extraordinary demand and pay the money at 
once. To give them an opportunity to do so, and, at all 
events, to elicit their final determination and the ground 
they intended to occupy, the instructions were given to our 
charge d'affaires which were adverted to at the commence- 
ment of the present session of Congress. The result, as 
you have seen, is a demand of an official written expression 
of regrets and a direct explanation addressed to France 
with a distinct intimation that this is a sine qua non. 

Mr. Barton having, in pursuance of his instructions, re- 
turned to the United States and the charge d'affaires of 
France having been recalled, all diplomatic intercourse be- 
tween the two countries is suspended, a state of things origi- 
nating in an unreasonable susceptibility on the part of the 
French Government and rendered necessary on our part by 
their refusal to perform engagements contained in a treaty 
from the faithful performance of which by us they are to 
this day enjoying many important commercial advantages. 

It is time that this unequal position of affairs should 



44^ Andrew Jackson 

cease, and that legislative action should be brought to sus- 
tain Executive exertion in such measures as the case re- 
quires. While France persists in her refusal to comply 
with the terms of a treaty the object of which was, by re- 
moving all causes of mutual complaint, to renew ancient 
feelings of friendship and to unite the two nations in the 
bonds of amity and of a mutually beneficial commerce, she 
can not justly complain if we adopt such peaceful remedies 
as the law of nations and the circumstances of the case may 
authorize and demand. Of the nature of these remedies I 
have heretofore had occasion to speak, and, in reference to 
a particular contingency, to express my conviction that 
reprisals would be best adapted to the emergency then con- 
templated. Since that period France, by all the depart- 
ments of her Government, has acknowledged the validity 
of our claims and the obligations of the treaty, and has 
appropriated the moneys which are necessary to its execu- 
tion; and though payment is withheld on grounds vitally 
important to our existence as an independent nation, it is 
not to be believed that she can have determined permanently 
to retain a position so utterly indefensible. In the altered 
state of the questions in controversy, and under all existing 
circumstances, it appears to me that until such a determina- 
tion shall have become evident it will be proper and suffi- 
cient to retaliate her present refusal to comply with her 
engagements by prohibiting the introduction of French 
products and the entry of French vessels into our ports. 
Between this and the interdiction of all commercial inter- 
course, or other remedies, you, as the representatives of the 
people, must determine. I recommend the former in the 
present posture of our affairs as being the least injurious 
to our commerce, and as attended with the least difficulty 
of returning to the usual state of friendly intercourse if the 
Government of France shall render us the justice that is 
due, and also as a proper preliminary step to stronger meas- 
ures should their adoption be rendered necessary by subse- 
quent events. 

The return of our charge d'affaires is attended with pub- 



Message on Affairs with France 449 

lie notices of naval preparations on the part of France 
destined for our seas. Of the cause and intent of these 
armaments I have no authentic information, nor any other 
means of judging except such as are common to yourselves 
and to the public ; but whatever may be their object, we are 
not at liberty to regard them as unconnected with the meas- 
ures which hostile movements on the part of France may 
compel us to pursue. They at least deserve to be met by 
adequate preparation on our part, and I therefore strongly 
urge large and speedy appropriations for the increase of the 
Navy and the completion of our coast defenses. 

If this array of military force be really designed to affect 
the action of the Government and people of the United 
States on the questions now pending between the two na- 
tions, then indeed would it be dishonorable to pause a mo- 
ment on the alternative which such a state of things would 
present to us. Come what may, the explanation which 
France demands can never be accorded, and no armament, 
however powerful and imposing, at a distance or on our 
coast, will, I trust, deter us from discharging the high duties 
which we owe to our constituents, our national character, 

and to the world. 

The House of Representatives at the close of the last 
session of Congress unanimously resolved that the treaty 
of the 4th of July, 1831, should be maintained and its exe- 
cution insisted on by the United States. It is due to the 
welfare of the human race not less than to our own interests 
and honor that this resolution should at all hazards be ad- 
hered to. If after so signal an example as that given by the 
American people during their long-protracted difficulties 
with France of forbearance under accumulated wrongs and 
of generous confidence in her ultimate return to justice she 
shall now be permitted to withhold from us the tardy and 
imperfect indemnification which after years of remon- 
strance and discussion had at length been solemnly agreed 
on by the treaty of 183 1 and to set at naught the obligations 
it imposes, the United States will not be the only sufferers. 
The efforts of humanity and religion to substitute the ap- 



450 



Andrew Jackson 



peals of justice and the arbitrament of reason for the coer- 
cive measures usually resorted to by injured nations will 
receive little encouragement from such an issue. By the 
selection and enforcement of such lawful and expedient 
measures as may be necessary to prevent a result so inju- 
rious to ourselves and so fatal to the hopes of the philan- 
thropist we shall therefore not only preserve the pecuniary 
interests of our citizens, the independence of our Govern- 
ment, and the honor of our country, but do much, it may 
be hoped, to vindicate the faith of treaties and to promote 
the general interests of peace, civilization, and improvement. 



Eighth Annual Message.* 

(December 5, 1836.) 

Fellow-Citinens of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives: Addressing to you the last annual message I shall 
ever present to the Congress of the United States, it is a 
source of the most heartfelt satisfaction to be able to con- 
gratulate you on the high state of prosperity which our 
beloved country has attained. With no causes at home or 
abroad to lessen the confidence with which we look to the 
future for continuing proofs of the capacity of our free 
institutions to produce all the fruits of good government, the 
general condition of our affairs may well excite our national 
pride. 

I can not avoid congratulating you, and my country 
particularly, on the success of the efforts made during my 
Administration by the Executive and Legislature, in con- 
formity with the sincere, constant, and earnest desire of 
the people, to maintain peace and establish cordial relations 
with all foreign powers. Our gratitude is due to the Su- 
preme Ruler of the Universe, and I invite you to unite with 
me in offering to Him fervent supplications that His provi- 
dential care may ever be extended to those who follow us, 
enabling them to avoid the dangers and the horrors of war 
consistently with a just and indispensable regard to the 
rights and honor of our country. But although the present 
state of our foreign affairs, standing without important 

* President Jackson's last annual message. Its most important 
declarations concern, (i) French spoliations and relations with France; 
(2) relations with Mexico and the Texas question; (3) distribution of 
the $30,000,000 surplus; (4) the currency; (5) the Bank of the United 
States; (6) State banks; (7) the Seminole Indians, the Creeks, theCher- 
okees ; (8) election of president and vice-president. 

45* 



45 2 Andrew Jackson 

change, as they did when you separated in July last, is flat- 
tering in the extreme, I regret to say that many questions 
of an interesting character, at issue with other powers, are 
yet unadjusted. Amongst the most prominent of these is 
that of our northeastern boundary. With an undiminished 
confidence in the sincere desire of His Britannic Majesty's 
Government to adjust that question, I am not yet in posses- 
sion of the precise grounds upon which it proposes a satis- 
factory adjustment. 

With France our diplomatic relations have been resumed, 
and under circumstances which attest the disposition of both 
Governments to preserve a mutually beneficial intercourse 
and foster those amicable feelings which are so strongly 
required by the true interests of the two countries. With 
Russia, Austria, Prussia, Naples, Sweden, and Denmark 
the best understanding exists, and our commercial inter- 
course is gradually expanding itself with them. It is en- 
couraged in all these countries, except Naples, by their 
mutually advantageous and liberal treaty stipulations 
with us. 

The claims of our citizens on Portugal are admitted to 
be just, but provision for the payment of them has been 
unfortunately delayed by frequent political changes in that 
Kingdom. 

The blessings of peace have not been secured by Spain. 
Our connections with that country are on the best footing, 
with the exception of the burdens still imposed upon our 
commerce with her possessions out of Europe. 

The claims of American citizens for losses sustained at 
the bombardment of Antwerp have been presented to the 
Governments of Holland and Belgium, and will be pressed, 
in due season, to settlement. 

With Brazil and all our neighbors of this continent we 
continue to maintain relations of amity and concord, ex- 
tending our commerce with them as far as the resources of 
the people and the policy of their Governments will permit. 
The just and long-standing claims of our citizens upon 
some of them are yet sources of dissatisfaction and com- 



Eighth Annual Message 453 

plaint. No danger is apprehended, however, that they will 
not be peacefully, although tardily, acknowledged and paid 
by all, unless the irritating effect of her struggle with 
Texas should unfortunately make our immediate neighbor, 
Mexico, an exception. 

It is already known to you, by the correspondence be- 
tween the two Governments communicated at your last ses- 
sion, that our conduct in relation to that struggle is regu- 
lated by the same principles that governed us in the dispute 
between Spain and Mexico herself, and I trust that it will 
be found on the most severe scrutiny that our acts have 
strictly corresponded with our professions. That the in- 
habitants of the United States should feel strong prepos- 
sessions for the one party is not surprising. But this cir- 
cumstance should of itself teach us great caution, lest it lead 
us into the great error of suffering public policy to be 
regulated by partiality or prejudice; and there are consid- 
erations connected with the possible result of this contest 
between the two parties of so much delicacy and impor- 
tance to the United States that our character requires that 
we should neither anticipate events nor attempt to control 
them. The known desire of the Texans to become a part of 
our system, although its gratification depends upon the 
reconcilement of various and conflicting interests, neces- 
sarily a work of time and uncertain in itself, is calculated 
to expose our conduct to misconstruction in the eyes of 
the world. There are already those who, indifferent to 
principle themselves and prone to suspect the want of it in 
others, charge us with ambitious designs and insidious 
policy. You will perceive by the accompanying documents 
that the extraordinary mission from Mexico has been termi- 
nated on the sole ground that the obligations of this Gov- 
ernment to itself and to Mexico, under treaty stipulations, 
have compelled me to trust a discretionary authority to a 
high officer of our Army to advance into territory claimed as 
part of Texas if necessary to protect our own or the neigh- 
boring frontier from Indian depredation. In the opinion 
of the Mexican functionary who has just left us, the honor 



454 Andrew Jackson 

of his country will be wounded by American soldiers enter- 
ing, with the most amicable avowed purposes, upon ground 
from which the followers of his Government have been 
expelled, and over which there is at present no certainty of 
a serious effort on its part being made to reestablish its 
dominion. The departure of this minister w^as the more 
singular as he was apprised that the sufficiency of the causes 
assigned for the advance of our troops by the commanding 
general had been seriously doubted by me, and there was 
every reason to suppose that the troops of the United States, 
their commander having had time to ascertain the truth 
or falsehood of the information upon which they had been 
marched to Nacogdoches, would be either there in perfect 
accordance with the principles admitted to be just in his 
conference with the Secretary of State by the Mexican min- 
ister himself, or were already withdrawn in consequence 
of the impressive warnings their commanding officer had 
received from the Department of War. It is hoped and 
believed that his Government will take a more dispassionate 
and just view of this subject, and not be disposed to con- 
strue a measure of justifiable precaution, made necessary by 
its known inability in execution of the stipulations of our 
treaty to act upon the frontier, into an encroachment upon 
its rights or a stain upon its honor. 

In the meantime the ancient complaints of injustice made 
on behalf of our citizens are disregarded, and new causes of 
dissatisfaction have arisen, some of them of a character 
requiring prompt remonstrance and ample and immediate 
redress. I trust, however, by tempering firmness with 
courtesy and acting with great forbearance upon every inci- 
dent that has occurred or that may happen, to do and to 
obtain justice, and thus avoid the necessity of again bring- 
ing this subject to the view of Congress. 

It is my duty to remind you that no provision has been 
made to execute our treaty with Mexico for tracing the 
boundary line between the two countries. Whatever may 
be the prospect of Mexico's being soon able to execute the 
treaty on its part, it is proper that we should be in anticipa- 



Eighth Annual Message 455 

tion prepared at all times to perform our obligations, with- 
out regard to the probable condition of those with whom 
we have contracted them. 

The result of the confidential inquiries made into the 
condition and prospects of the newly declared Texan Gov- 
ernment will be communicated to you in the course of the 
session. 

Commercial treaties promising great advantages to our 
enterprising merchants and navigators have been formed 
with the distant Governments of Muscat and Siam. The 
ratifications have been exchanged, but have not reached the 
Department of State. Copies of the treaties will be trans- 
mitted to you if received before, or published if arriving 
after, the close of the present session of Congress. 

Nothing has occurred to interrupt the good understand- 
ing that has long existed with the Barbary Powers, nor to 
check the good will which is gradually growing up from 
our intercourse with the dominions of the Government of 
the distinguished chief of the Ottoman Empire. 

Information has been received at the Department of State 
that a treaty with the Emperor of Morocco has just been 
negotiated, which, I hope, will be received in time to be laid 
before the Senate previous to the close of the session. 

You will perceive from the report of the Secretary of the 
Treasury that the financial means of the country continue to 
keep pace with its improvement in all other respects. The 
receipts into the Treasury during the present year will 
amount to about $47,691,898; those from customs being 
estimated at $22,523,151, those from lands at about 
$24,000,000, and the residue from miscellaneous sources. 
The expenditures for all objects during the year are esti- 
mated not to exceed $32,000,000, which will leave a balance 
in the Treasury for public purposes on the ist day of 
January next of about $4i723'959- This sum, with the 
exception of $5,000,000, will be transferred to the several 
States in accordance with the provisions of the act regu- 
lating the deposits of the public money. 

The unexpended balances of appropriation on the ist 



45^ Andrew Jackson 



day of January next are estimated at $14,636,062, ex- 
• ceeding by $9,636,062 the amount which will be left in the 
deposit banks, subject to the draft of the Treasurer of the 
United States, after the contemplated transfers to the sev- 
eral States are made. If, therefore, the future receipts 
should not be sufficient to meet these outstanding and 
future appropriations, there may be soon a necessity to use 
a portion of the funds deposited with the States. 

The consequences apprehended when the deposit act of 
the last session received a reluctant approval have been 
measurably realized. Though an act merely for the deposit 
of the surplus moneys of the United States in the State 
treasuries for safe-keeping until they may be wanted for the 
service of the General Government, it has been extensively 
spoken of as an act to give the money to the several States, 
and they have been advised to use it as a gift, without re- 
gard to the means of refunding it when called for. Such 
a suggestion has doubtless been made without a due consid- 
eration of the obligations of the deposit act, and without a 
proper attention to the various principles and interests 
which are affected by it. It is manifest that the law itself 
can not sanction such a suggestion, and that as it now stands 
the States have no more authority to receive and use these 
deposits without intending to return them than any deposit 
bank or any individual temporarily charged with the safe- 
keeping or application of the public money would now have 
for converting the same to their private use without the 
consent and against the will of the Government. But inde- 
pendently of the violation of public faith and moral obliga- 
tion which are involved in this suggestion when examined 
in reference to the terms of the present deposit act, it is 
believed that the considerations which should govern the 
future legislation of Congress on this subject will be equally 
conclusive against the adoption of any measure recognizing 
the principles on which the suggestion has been made. 

Considering the intimate connection of the subject with 
the financial interests of the country and its great impor- 
tance in whatever aspect it can be viewed, I have bestowed 



Eighth Annual Message 457 

upon it the most anxious reflection, and feel it to be my duty 
to state to Congress such thoughts as have occurred to me, 
to aid their dehberation in treating it in the manner best 
calculated to conduce to the common good. 

The experience of other nations admonished us to hasten 
the extinguishment of the public debt; but it will be in vain 
that we have congratulated each other upon the disappear- 
ance of this evil if we do not guard against the equally great 
one of promoting the unnecessary accumulation of public 
revenue. No political maxim is better established than 
that which tells us that an improvident expenditure of 
money is the parent of profligacy, and that no people can 
hope to perpetuate their liberties who long acquiesce in a 
policy which taxes them for objects not necessary to the 
legitimate and real wants of their Government. Flatter- 
ing as is the condition of our country at the present period, 
because of its unexampled advance in all the steps of social 
and political improvement, it can not be disguised that there 
is a lurking danger already apparent in the neglect of this 
warning truth, and that the time has arrived when the rep- 
resentatives of the people should be employed in devising 
some more appropriate remedy than now exists to avert it. 

Under our present revenue system there is every proba- 
bility that there will continue to be a surplus beyond the 
wants of the Government, and it has become our duty to 
decide whether such a result be consistent with the true 
objects of our Government. 

Should a surplus be permitted to accumulate beyond the 
appropriations, it must be retained in the Treasury, as it 
now is, or distributed among the people or the States. 

To retain it in the Treasury unemployed in any way is 
impracticable ; it is, besides, against the genius of our free 
institutions to lock up in vaults the treasure of the nation. 
To take from the people the right of bearing arms and put 
their weapons of defense in the hands of a standing army 
would be scarcely more dangerous to their liberties than to 
permit the Government to accumulate immense amounts of 
treasure beyond the supplies necessary to its legitimate 



45 S Andrew Jackson 

wants. Such a treasure would doubtless be employed at 
some time, as it has been in other countries, when oppor- 
tunity tempted ambition. 

To collect it merely for distribution to the States would 
seem to be highly impolitic, if not as dangerous as the 
proposition to retain it in the Treasury. The shortest re- 
flection must satisfy everyone that to require the people to 
pay taxes to the Government merely that they may be paid 
back again is sporting with the substantial interests of the 
country, and no system which produces such a result can 
be expected to receive the public countenance. Nothing 
could be gained by it even if each individual who contrib- 
uted a portion of the tax could receive back promptly the 
same portion. But it is apparent that no system of the 
kind can ever be enforced which will not absorb a consid- 
erable portion of the money to be distributed in salaries 
and commissions to the agents employed in the process and 
in the various losses and depreciations which arise from 
other causes, and the practical effect of such an attempt 
must ever be to burden the people with taxes, not for pur- 
poses beneficial to them, but to swell the profits of deposit 
banks and support a band of useless public ofiicers. 

A distribution to the people is impracticable and unjust 
in other respects. It would be taking one man's property 
and giving it to another. Such would be the unavoidable 
result of a rule of equality (and none other is spoken of or 
would be likely to be adopted), inasmuch as there is no 
mode by which the amount of the individual contributions 
of our citizens to the public revenue can be ascertained. 
We know that they contribute unequally, and a rule, there- 
fore, that would distribute to them equally would be liable 
to all the objections which apply to the principle of an equal 
division of property. To make the General Government 
the instrument of carrying this odious principle into effect 
would be at once to destroy the means of its usefulness and 
change the character designed for it by the framers of the 
Constitution. 

But the more extended and injurious consequences likely 



Eighth Annual Message 459 

to result from a policy which would collect a surplus reve- 
nue for the purpose of distributing it may be forcibly illus- 
trated by an examination of the effects already produced 
by the present deposit act. This act, although certainly 
designed to secure the safe-keeping of the public revenue, is 
not entirely free in its tendencies from any of the objections 
which apply to this principle of distribution. The Govern- 
ment had without necessity received from the people a large 
surplus, which, instead of being employed as heretofore 
and returned to them by means of the public expenditure, 
was deposited with sundry banks. The banks proceeded to 
make loans upon this surplus, and thus converted it into 
banking capital, and in this manner it has tended to multiply 
bank charters and has had a great agency in producing a 
spirit of wild speculation. The possession and use of the 
property out of which this surplus was created belonged to 
the people, but the Government has transferred its posses- 
sion to incorporated banks, whose interest and effort it is to 
make large profits out of its use. This process need only 
be stated to show its injustice and bad policy. 

And the same observations apply to the influence which 
is produced by the steps necessary to collect as well as to 
distribute such a revenue. About three-fifths of all the 
duties on imports are paid in the city of New York, but it 
is obvious that the means to pay those duties are drawn 
from every quarter of the Union. Every citizen in every 
State who purchases and consumes an article which has 
paid a duty at that port contributes to the accumulating 
mass. The surplus collected there must therefore be made 
up of moneys or property withdrawn from other points 
and other States. Thus the wealth and business of every 
region from which these surplus funds proceed must be to 
some extent injured, while that of the place where the funds 
are concentrated and are employed in banking are propor- 
tionably extended. But both in making the transfer of the 
funds which are first necessary to pay the duties and col- 
lect the surplus and in making the retransfer which be- 
comes necessary when the time arrives for the distribution 



4^0 Andrew Jackson 

of that surplus there is a considerable period when the funds 
can not be brought into use, and it is manifest that, besides 
the loss inevitable from such an operation, its tendency is 
to produce fluctuations in the business of the country, which 
are always productive of speculation and detrimental to the 
interests of regular trade. Argument can scarcely be neces- 
sary to show that a measure of this character ought not to 
receive further legislative encouragement. 

By examining the practical operation of the ratio for dis- 
tribution adopted in the deposit bill of the last session we 
shall discover other features that appear equally objection- 
able. Let it be assumed, for the sake of argument, that 
the surplus moneys to be deposited with the States have 
been collected and belong to them in the ratio of their 
federal representative population — an assumption founded 
upon the fact that any deficiencies in our future revenue 
from imposts and public lands must be made up by direct 
taxes collected from the States in that ratio. It is proposed 
to distribute this surplus — say $30,000,000 — not according 
to the ratio in which it has been collected and belongs to the 
people of the States, but in that of their votes in the col- 
leges of electors of President and Vice-President. The 
effect of a distribution upon that ratio is shown by the 
annexed table, marked A. 

By an examination of that table it will be perceived that 
in the distribution of a surplus of $30,000,000 upon that 
basis there is a great departure from the principle which 
regards representation as the true measure of taxation, and 
it will be found that the tendency of that departure will be 
to increase whatever inequalities have been supposed to at- 
tend the operation of our federal system in respect to its 
bearings upon the different interests of the Union. In mak- 
ing the basis of representation the basis of taxation the 
framers of the Constitution intended to equalize the bur- 
dens which are necessary to support the Government, and 
the adoption of that ratio, while it accomplished this object, 
was also the means of adjusting other great topics arising 
out of the conflicting views respecting the political equality 



Eighth Annual Message 461 

of the various members of the Confederacy. Whatever, 
therefore, disturbs the liberal spirit of the compromises 
which established a rule of taxation so just and equitable, 
and which experience has proved to be so well adapted to 
the genius and habits of our people, should be received with 
the greatest caution and distrust. 

A bare inspection in the annexed table of the differences 
produced by the ratio used in the deposit act compared with 
the results of a distribution according to the ratio of direct 
taxation must satisfy every unprejudiced mind that the 
former ratio contravenes the spirit of the Constitution and 
produces a degree of injustice in the operations of the Fed- 
eral Government which would be fatal to the hope of per- 
petuating it. By the ratio of direct taxation, for example, 
the State of Delaware in the collection of $30,000,000 of 
revenue would pay into the Treasury $188,716, and in a 
distribution of $30,000,000 she would receive back from 
the Government, according to the ratio of the deposit bill, 
the sum of $306,122; and similar results would follow the 
comparison between the small and the large States through- 
out the Union, thus realizing to the small States an advan- 
tage which would be doubtless as unacceptable to them as a 
motive for incorporating the principle in any system which 
would produce it as it would be inconsistent with the rights 
and expectations of the large States. It w-as certainly the 
intention of that provision of the Constitution which de- 
clares that " all duties, imposts, and excises " shall " be uni- 
form throughout the United States " to make the burdens 
of taxation fall equally upon the people in whatever State 
of the Union they may reside. But what would be the 
value of such a uniform rule if the moneys raised by it 
could be immediately returned by a different one which 
will give to the people of some States much more and to 
those of others much less than their fair proportions? 
Were the Federal Government to exempt in express terms 
the imports, products, and manufactures of some portions 
of the country from all duties while it imposed heavy ones 
on others, the injustice could not be greater. It would be 



4^2 Andrew Jackson 

easy to show how by the operation of such a principle the 
large States of the Union would not only have to con- 
tribute their just share toward the support of the Federal 
Government, but also have to bear in some degree the taxes 
necessary to support the governments of their smaller sis- 
ters ; but it is deemed unnecessary to state the details where 
the general principle is so obvious. 

A system liable to such objections can never be supposed 
to have been sanctioned by the framers of the Constitution 
when they conferred on' Congress the taxing power, and I 
feel persuaded that a mature examination of the subject 
will satisfy everyone that there are insurmountable diffi- 
culties in the operation of any plan which can be devised of 
collecting revenue for the purpose of distributing it. Con- 
gress is only authorized to levy taxes " to pay the debts and 
provide for the commoft defense and general welfare of the 
United States." There is no such provision as would 
authorize Congress to collect together the property of the 
country, under the name of revenue, for the purpose of 
dividing it equally or unequally among the States or the 
people. Indeed, it is not probable that such an idea ever 
occurred to the States when they adopted the Constitution. 
But however this may be, the only safe rule for us in inter- 
preting the powers granted to the Federal Government is 
to regard the absence of express authority to touch a sub- 
ject so important and delicate as this is as equivalent to a 
prohibition. 

Even if our powers were less doubtful in this respect as 
the Constitution now stands, there are considerations 
afforded by recent experience which would seem to make it 
our duty to avoid a resort to such a system. 

All will admit that the simplicity and economy of the 
State governments mainly depend on the fact that money 
has to be supplied to support them by the same men, or their 
agents, who vote it away in appropriations. Hence when 
there are extravagant and wasteful appropriations there ' 
must be a corresponding increase of taxes, and the people, 
becoming awakened, will necessarily scrutinize the charac- 



Eighth Annual Message 4^3 

ter of measures which thus increase their burdens. By the 
watchful eye of self-interest the agents of the people in the 
State governments are repressed and kept within the limits 
of a just economy. But if the necessity of levying the 
taxes be taken from those who make the appropriations and 
thrown upon a more distant and less responsible set of pub- 
lic agents, who have power to approach the people by an 
indirect and stealthy taxation, there is reason to fear that 
prodigality will soon supersede those characteristics which 
have thus far made us look with so much pride and con- 
fidence to the State governments as the mainstay of our 
Union and liberties. The State legislatures, instead of 
studying to restrict their State expenditures to the smallest 
possible sum, will claim credit for their profusion, and 
harass the General Government for increased supplies. 
Practically there would soon be but one taxing power, and 
that vested in a body of men far removed from the people, 
in which the farming and mechanic interests would scarcely 
be represented. The States would gradually lose their pur- 
ity as well as their independence; they would not dare to 
murmur at the proceedings of the General Government, lest 
they should lose their supplies; all would be merged in a 
practical consolidation, cemented by widespread corruption, 
which could only be eradicated by one of those bloody revo- 
lutions which occasionally overthrow the despotic systems 
of the Old World. In all the other aspects in which I have 
been able to look at the effect of such a principle of dis- 
tribution upon the best interests of the country I can see 
nothing to compensate for the disadvantages to which I 
have adverted. If we consider the protective duties, which 
are in a great degree the source of the surplus reveiuie, 
beneficial to one section of the Union and prejudicial to 
another, there is no corrective for the evil in such a plan 
of distribution. On the contrary, there is reason to fear 
that all the complaints which have sprung from this cause 
would be aggravated. Everyone must be sensible that a 
distribution of the surplus must beget a disposition to cher- 
ish the means which create it, and any system, therefore, 



4^4 Andrew Jackson 

into which it enters must have a powerful tendency to in- 
crease rather than diminish the tariff. If it were even 
admitted that the advantages of such a system could be 
made equal to all the sections of the Union, the reasons 
already so urgently calling for a reduction of the revenue 
would nevertheless lose none of their force, for it will al- 
ways be improbable that an intelligent and virtuous com- 
munity can consent to raise a surplus for the mere purpose 
of dividing it, diminished as it must inevitably be by the 
expenses of the various machinery necessary to the process. 

The safest and simplest mode of obviating all the diffi- 
culties which have been mentioned is to collect only reve- 
nue enough to meet the wants of the Government, and let 
the people keep the balance of their property in their own 
hands, to be used for their own profit. Each State will 
then support its own government and contribute its due 
share toward the support of the General Government. 
There would be no surplus to cramp and lessen the resources 
of individual wealth and enterprise, and the banks would be 
left to their ordinary means. Whatever agitations and fluc- 
tuations might arise from our unfortunate paper system, 
they could never be attributed, justly or unjustly, to the 
action of the Federal Government. There would be some 
guaranty that the spirit of wild speculation which seeks to 
convert the surplus revenue into banking capital would be 
effectually checked, and that the scenes of demoralization 
which are now so prevalent through the land would 
disappear. 

Without desiring to conceal that the experience and ob- 
servation of the last two years have operated a partial 
change in my views upon this interesting subject, it is 
nevertheless regretted that the suggestions made by me in 
my annual messages of 1829 and 1830 have been greatly 
misunderstood. At that time the great struggle was begun 
against that latitudinarian construction of the Constitution 
which authorizes the unlimited appropriation of the reve- 
nues of the Union to internal improvements within the 
States, tending to invest in the hands and place under the 



Eighth Annual Message 465 

control of the General Government all the principal roads 
and canals of the country, in violation of State rights and in 
derogation of State authority. At the same time the con- 
dition of the manufacturing interest was such as to create an 
apprehension that the duties on imports could not without 
extensive mischief be reduced in season to prevent the 
accumulation of a considerable surplus after the payment 
of the national debt. In view of the dangers of such a 
surplus, and in preference to its application to internal im- 
provements in derogation of the rights and powers of the 
States, the suggestion of an amendment of the Constitution 
to authorize its distribution was made. It was an alter- 
native for what were deemed greater evils — a temporary 
resort to relieve an overburdened treasury until the Govern- 
ment could, without a sudden and destructive revulsion in 
the business of the country, gradually return to the just 
principle of raising no more revenue from the people in 
taxes than is necessary for its economical support. Even 
that alternative was not spoken of but in connection with 
an amendment of the Constitution. No temporary incon- 
venience can justify the exercise of a prohibited power or a 
power not granted by that instrument, and it was from a 
conviction that the power to distribute even a temporary 
surplus of revenue is of that character that it was suggested 
only in connection with an appeal to the source of all legal 
power in the General Government, the States which have 
established it. No such appeal has been taken, and in my 
opinion a distribution of the surplus revenue by Congress 
either to the States or the people is to be considered as 
among the prohibitions of the Constitution. As already 
intimated, my views have undergone a change so far as 
to be convinced that no alteration of the Constitution in 
this respect is wise or expedient. The influence of an 
accumulating surplus upon the legislation of the General 
Government and the States, its effect upon the credit sys- 
tem of the country, producing dangerous extensions and 
ruinous contractions, fluctuations in the price of property, 
rash speculation, idleness, extravagance, and a deterioration 



4^6 Andrew Jackson 

of morals, have taught us the important lesson that any 
transient mischief which may attend the reduction of our 
revenue to the wants of our Government is to be borne in 
preference to an overflowing treasury. 

I beg leave to call your attention to another subject in- 
timately associated with the preceding one — the currency 
of the country. 

It is apparent from the whole context of the Constitu- 
tion, as well as the history of the times which gave birth 
to it, that it was the purpose of the Convention to establish 
a currency consisting of the precious metals. These, from 
their peculiar properties which rendered them the standard 
of value in all other countries, were adopted in this as well 
to establish its commercial standard in reference to foreign 
countries by a permanent rule as to exclude the use of a 
mutable medium of exchange, such as of certain agricul- 
tural commodities recognized by the statutes of some States 
as a tender for debts, or the still more pernicious expedient 
of a paper currency. The last, from the experience of the 
evils of the issues of paper during the Revolution, had be- 
come so justly obnoxious as not only to suggest the clause 
in the Constitution forbidding the emission of bills of 
credit by the States, but also to produce that vote in the 
Convention which negatived the proposition to grant power 
to Congress to charter corporations — a proposition well 
understood at the time as intended to authorize the estab- 
lishment of a national bank, which was to issue a currency 
of bank notes on a capital to be created to some extent out 
of Government stocks. Although this proposition was re- 
fused by a direct vote of the Convention, the object was 
afterwards in effect obtained by its ingenious advocates 
through a strained construction of the Constitution. The 
debts of the Revolution were funded at prices which formed 
no equivalent compared with the nominal amount of the 
stock, and under circumstances which exposed the motives 
of some of those who participated in the passage of the act 
to distrust. 

The facts that the value of the stock was greatly en- 



Eighth Annual Message 4^7 

hanced by the creation of the bank, that it was well under- 
stood that such would be the case, and that some of the 
advocates of the measure were largely benefited by it belong 
to the history of the times, and are well calculated to dimin- 
ish the respect which might otherwise have been due to the 
action of the Congress which created the institution. 

On the establishment of a national bank it became the 
interest of its creditors that gold should be superseded by 
the paper of the bank as a general currency. A value was 
soon attached to the gold coins which made their exporta- 
tion to foreign countries as a mercantile commodity more 
profitable than their retention and use at home as money. 
It follow^ed as a matter of course, if not designed by those 
who established the bank, that the bank became in effect a 
substitute for the Mint of the United States. 

Such was the origin of a national-bank currency, and 
such the beginning of those difficulties which now appear in 
the excessive issues of the banks incorporated by the various 
States. 

Although it may not be possible by any legislative means 
within our power to change at once the system which has 
thus been introduced, and has received the acquiescence of 
all portions of the country, it is certainly our duty to^ do all 
that is consistent with our constitutional obligations in pre- 
venting the mischiefs which are threatened by its undue 
extension. That the efforts of the fathers of our Govern- 
ment to guard against it by a constitutional provision were 
founded on an intimate knowledge of the subject has been 
frequently attested by the bitter experience of the country. 
The same causes which led them to refuse their sanction 
to a power authorizing the establishment of incorporations 
for banking purposes now exist in a much stronger degree 
to urge us to exert the utmost vigilance in calling into 
action the means necessary to correct the evils resulting 
from the unfortunate exercise of the power, and it is to be 
hoped that the opportunity for effecting this great good will 
be improved before the country witnesses new scenes of 
embarrassment and distress. 



4^8 Andrew Jackson 

Variableness must ever be the characteristic of a cur- 
rency of which the precious metals are not the chief in- 
gredient, or which can be expanded or contracted without 
regard to the principles that regulate the value of those 
metals as a standard in the general trade of the world. 
With us bank issues constitute such a currency, and must 
ever do so until they are made dependent on those just pro- 
portions of gold and silver as a circulating medium which 
experience has proved to be necessary not only in this but in 
all other commercial countries. Where those proportions 
are not infused into the circulation and do not control it, it 
is manifest that prices must vary according to the tide of 
bank issues, and the value and stability of property must 
stand exposed to all the uncertainty which attends the ad- 
ministration of institutions that are constantly liable to the 
temptation of an interest distinct from that of the com- 
munity in which they are established. 

The progress of an expansion, or rather a depreciation, 
of the currency by excessive bank issues is always attended 
by a loss to the laboring classes. This portion of the com- 
munity have neither time nor opportunity to watch the ebbs 
and flows of the money market. Engaged from day to 
day in their useful toils, they do not perceive that although 
their wages are nominally the same, or even somewhat 
higher, they are greatly reduced in fact by the rapid in- 
crease of a spurious currency, which, as it appears to make 
money abound, they are at first inclined to consider a bless- 
ing. It is not so with the speculator, by whom this opera- 
tion is better understood, and is made to contribute to his 
advantage. It is not until the prices of the necessaries of life 
become so dear that the laboring classes can not supply 
their wants out of their wages that the wages rise and 
gradually reach a justly proportioned rate to that of the 
products of their labor. When thus, by the depreciation 
in consequence of the quantity of paper in circulation, wages 
as well as prices become exorbitant, it is soon found that 
the whole effect of the adulteration is a tariff on our home 
industry for the benefit of the countries where gold and 



Eighth Annual Message 4^9 

silver circulate and maintain uniformity and moderation in 
prices. It is then perceived that the enhancement of the 
price of land and labor produces a corresponding increase 
in the price of products until these products do not sustain 
a competition with similar ones in other countries, and thus 
both manufactured and agricultural productions cease to 
bear exportation from the country of the spurious currency, 
because they can not be sold for cost. This is the process 
by v^hich specie is banished by the paper of the banks. 
Their vaults are soon exhausted to pay for foreign com- 
modities. The next step is a stoppage of specie payment — a 
total degradation of paper as a currency — unusual depres- 
sion of prices, the ruin of debtors, and the accumulation of 
property in the hands of creditors and cautious capitalists. 

It was in view of these evils, together with the dangerous 
power wielded by the Bank of the United States and its 
repugnance to our Constitution, that I was induced to exert 
the power conferred upon me by the American people to 
prevent the continuance of that institution. But although 
various dangers to our republican institutions have been 
obviated by the failure of that bank to extort from the Gov- 
ernment a renewal of its charter, it is obvious that little 
has been accomplished except a salutary change of public 
opinion toward restoring to the country the sound cur- 
rency provided for in the Constitution. In the acts of 
several of the States prohibiting the circulation of small 
notes, and the auxiliary enactments of Congress at the 
last session forbidding their reception or payment on public 
account, the true policy of the country has been advanced 
and a larger portion of the precious metals infused into 
our circulating medium. These measures will probably be 
followed up in due time by the enactment of State laws 
banishing from circulation bank notes of still higher de- 
nominations, and the object may be materially promoted 
by further acts of Congress forbidding the employment 
as fiscal agents of such banks as continue to issue notes 
of low denominations and throw impediments in the way of 
the circulation of gold and silver. 



47° Andrew Jackson 

The effects of an extension of bank credits and overissues 
of bank paper have been strikingly illustrated in the sales 
of the public lands. From the returns made by the various 
registers and receivers in the early part of last summer it 
was perceived that the receipts arising from the sales of the 
public lands were increasing to an unprecedented amount. 
In effect, however, these receipts amounted to nothing more 
than credits in bank. The banks lent out their notes to 
speculators. They were paid to the receivers and imme- 
diately returned to the banks, to be lent out again and again, 
being mere instruments to transfer to speculators the most 
valuable public land and pay the Government by a credit on 
the books of the banks. Those credits on the books of 
some of the Western banks, usually called deposits, were 
already greatly beyond their immediate means of payment, 
and were rapidly increasing. Indeed, each speculation 
furnished means for another; for no sooner had one indi- 
vidual or company paid in the notes than they were imme- 
diately lent to another for a like purpose, and the banks 
were extending their business and their issues so largely as 
to alarm considerate men and render it doubtful whether 
these bank credits if permitted to accumulate would ulti- 
mately be of the least value to the Government. The spirit 
of expansion and speculation was not confined to the deposit 
banks, but pervaded the whole multitude of banks through- 
out the Union and was giving rise to new institutions to 
aggravate the evil. 

The safety of the public funds and the interest of the 
people generally required that these operations should be 
checked ; and it became the duty of every branch of the 
General and State Governments to adopt all legitimate and 
proper means to produce that salutary effect. Under this 
view of my duty I directed the issuing of the order which 
will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury, 
requiring payment for the public lands sold to be made in 
specie, with an exception until the 15th of the present month 
in favor of actual settlers. This measure has produced 
many salutary consequences. It checked the career of the 



Eighth Annual Message 471 

Western banks and gave them additional strength in antici- 
pation of the pressure which has since pervaded our Eastern 
as well as the European commercial cities. By preventing 
the extension of the credit system it measurably cut off the 
means of speculation and retarded its progress in monopo- 
lizing the most valuable of the public lands. It has tended 
to save the new States from a nonresident proprietorship, 
one of the greatest obstacles to the advancement of a new 
country and the prosperity of an old one. It has tended to 
keep open the public lands for entry by emigrants at Gov- 
ernment prices instead of their being compelled to purchase 
of speculators at double or triple prices. And it is convey- 
ing into the interior large sums in silver and gold, there to 
enter permanently into the currency of the country and 
place it on a firmer foundation. It is confidently believed 
that the country will find in the motives which induced that 
order and the happy consequences which will have ensued 
much to commend and nothing to condemn. 

It remains for Congress if they approve the policy which 
dictated this order to follow it up in its various bearings. 
Much good, in my judgment, would be produced by pro- 
hibiting sales of the public lands except to actual settlers at 
a reasonable reduction of price, and to limit the quantity 
which shall be sold to them. Although it is believed the 
General Government never ought to receive anything but 
the constitutional currency in exchange for the public lands, 
that point would be of less importance if the lands were sold 
for immediate settlement and cultivation. Indeed, there 
is scarcely a mischief arising out of our present land system, 
including the accumulating surplus of revenues, which 
would not be remedied at once by a restriction on land 
sales to actual settlers ; and it promises other advantages to 
the country in general and to the new States in particular 
which can not fail to receive the most profound considera- 
tion of Congress. 

Experience continues to realize the expectations enter- 
tained as to the capacity of the State banks to perform the 
duties of fiscal agents for the Government at the time of the 



472 Andrew Jackson 

removal of the deposits. It was alleged by the advocates 
of the Bank of the United States that the State banks, what- 
ever might be the regulations of the Treasury Department, 
could not make the transfers required by the Government 
or negotiate the domestic exchanges of the country. It is 
now well ascertained that the real domestic exchanges per- 
formed through discounts by the United States Bank and 
its twenty-five branches were at least one-third less than 
those of the deposit banks for an equal period of time ; and 
if a comparison be instituted between the amounts of serv- 
ice rendered by these institutions on the broader basis which 
has been used by the advocates of the United States Bank 
in estimating what they consider the domestic exchanges 
transacted by it, the result will be still more favorable to 
the deposit banks. 

The whole amount of public money transferred by the 
Bank of the United States in 1832 was $16,000,000. The 
amount transferred and actually paid by the deposit banks 
in the year ending the ist of October last was $39,31 9-899 5 
the amount transferred and paid between that period and 
the 6th of November was $5,399,000, and the amount of 
transfer warrants outstanding on that day was $14,450,000, 
making an aggregate of $59,168,894. These enormous 
sums of money first mentioned have been transferred with 
the greatest promptitude and regularity, and the rates at 
which the exchanges have been negotiated previously to 
the passage of the deposit act were generally below those 
charged by the Bank of the United States. Independently 
of these services, which are far greater than those ren- 
dered by the United States Bank and its twenty-five 
branches, a number of the deposit banks have, with a com- 
mendable zeal to aid in the improvement of the currency, 
imported from abroad, at their own expense, large sums 
of the precious metals for coinage and circulation. 

In the same manner have nearly all the predictions turned 
out in respect to the effect of the removal of the deposits — 
a step unquestionably necessary to prevent the evils which it 
was foreseen the bank itself would endeavor to create in a 



Eighth Annual Message 473 

final struggle to procure a renewal of its charter. It may be 
thus, too, in some degree with the further steps which may 
be taken to prevent the excessive issue of other bank paper, 
but it is to be hoped that nothing will now deter the Fed- 
eral and State authorities from the firm and vigorous per- 
formance of their duties to themselves and to the people 
in this respect. 

In reducing the revenue to the wants of the Government 
your particular attention is invited to those articles which 
constitute the necessaries of life. The duty on salt was 
laid as a war tax, and was no doubt continued to assist in 
providing for the payment of the war debt. There is no 
article the release of which from taxation would be felt so 
generally and so beneficially. To this may be added all 
kinds of fuel and provisions. Justice and benevolence 
unite in favor of releasing the poor of our cities from bur- 
dens which are not necessary to the support of our Gov- 
ernment and tend only to increase the wants of the destitute. 

It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the 
Treasury and the accompanying documents that the Bank 
of the United States has made no payment on account of 
the stock held by the Government in that institution, al- 
though urged to pay any portion which might suit its con- 
venience, and that it has given no information when pay- 
ment may be expected. Nor, although repeatedly requested, 
has it furnished the information in relation to its condition 
which Congress authorized the Secretary to collect at their 
last session. Such measures as are within the power of 
the Executive have been taken to ascertain the value of the 
stock and procure the payment as early as possible. 

The conduct and present condition of that bank and the 
great amount of capital vested in it by the United States 
require your careful attention. Its charter expired on the 
3d day of March last, and it has now no power but that 
given in the twenty-first section, "to use the corporate 
name, style, and capacity for the purpose of suits for the 
final settlement and liquidation of the affairs and accounts 
of the corporation, and for the sale and disposition of their 



474 Andrew Jackson 

estate — real, personal, and mixed — but not for any other 
purpose or in any other manner whatsoever, nor for a 
period exceeding two years after the expiration of the said 
term of incorporation." Before the expiration of the char- 
ter the stockholders of the bank obtained an act of incor- 
poration from the legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding 
only the United States. Instead of proceeding to wind up 
their concerns and pay over to the United States the amount 
due on account of the stock held by them, the president and 
directors of the old bank appear to have transferred the 
books, papers, notes, obligations, and most or all of its 
property to this new corporation, which entered upon busi- 
ness as a continuation of the old concern. Amongst other 
acts of questionable validity, the notes of the expired cor- 
poration are known to have been used as its own and again 
put in circulation. That the old bank had no right to issue 
or reissue its notes after the expiration of its charter can 
not be denied, and that it could not confer any such right 
on its substitute any more than exercise it itself is equally 
plain. In law and honesty the notes of the bank in circula- 
tion at the expiration of its charter should have been called 
in by public advertisement, paid up as presented, and, to- 
gether with those on hand, cancelled and destroyed. Their 
reissue is sanctioned by no law and warranted by no neces- 
sity. If the United States be responsible in their stock for 
the payment of these notes, their reissue by the new cor- 
poration for their own profit is a fraud on the Government. 
If the United States is not responsible, then there is no 
legal responsibility in any quarter, and it is a fraud on the 
country. They are the redeemed notes of a dissolved part- 
nership, but, contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner 
and without his consent, are again reissued and circulated. 

It is the high and peculiar duty of Congress to decide 
whether any further legislation be necessary for the se- 
curity of the large amount of public property now held 
and in use by the new bank, and for vindicating the rights 
of the Government and compelling a speedy and honest set- 
tlement with all the creditors of the old bank, public and 



Eighth Annual Message 475 

private, or whether the subject shall be left to the power 
now possessed by the Executive and judiciary. It remains 
to be seen whether the persons who as managers of the old 
bank undertook to control the Government, retained the 
public dividends, shut their doors upon a committee of the 
House of Representatives, and filled the country with panic 
to accomplish their own sinister objects may now as man- 
agers of a new bank continue with impunity to flood the 
country with a spurious currency, use the seven millions of 
Government stock for their own profit, and refuse to the 
United States all information as to the present condition of 
their own property and the prospect of recovering it into 
their own possession. 

The lessons taught by the Bank of the United States 
can not well be lost upon the American people. They will 
take care never again to place so tremendous a power in 
irresponsible hands, and it will be fortunate if they seriously 
consider the consequences which are likely to result on a 
smaller scale from the facility with which corporate powers 
are granted by their State governments. 

It is believed that the law of the last session regulating 
the deposit banks operates onerously and unjustly upon 
them in many respects, and it is hoped that Congress, on 
proper representations, will adopt the modifications which 
are necessary to prevent this consequence. 

The report of the Secretary of War ad interim and the 
accompanying documents, all which are herewith laid be- 
fore you, will give you a full view of the diversified and 
important operations of that Department during the past 

year. 

The military movements rendered necessary by the ag- 
gressions of the hostile portions of the Seminole and Creek 
tribes of Indians, and by other circumstances, have required 
the active employment of nearly our whole regular force, 
including the Marine Corps, and of large bodies of militia 
and volunteers. With all these events so far as they were 
known at the seat of Government before the termination of 
your last session you are already acquainted, and it is there- 



47^ Andrew Jackson 

fore only needful in this place to lay before you a brief 
summary of what has since occurred. 

The war with the Seminoles during the summer was on 
our part chiefly confined to the protection of our frontier 
settlements from the incursions of the enemy, and, as a 
necessary and important means for the accomplishment of 
that end, to the maintenance of the posts previously estab- 
lished. In the course of this duty several actions took place, 
in which the bravery and discipline of both officers and men 
were conspicuously displayed, and which I have deemed it 
proper to notice in respect to the former by the granting of 
brevet rank for gallant services in the field. But as the 
force of the Indians was not so far weakened by these par- 
tial successes as to lead them to submit, and as their savage 
inroads were frequently repeated, early measures were taken 
for placing at the disposal of Governor Call, who as com- 
mander in chief of the Territorial militia had been tempo- 
rarily invested with the command, an ample force for the 
purpose of resuming offensive operations in the most effi- 
cient manner so soon as the season should permit. Major- 
General Jesup was also directed, on the conclusion of his 
duties in the Creek country, to repair to Florida and assume 
the command. 

The result of the first movement made by the forces 
under the direction of Governor Call in October last, as 
detailed in the accompanying papers, excited much surprise 
and disappointment. A full explanation has been required 
of the causes which led to the failure of that movement, but 
has not yet been received. In the meantime, as it was 
feared that the health of Governor Call, who was under- 
stood to have suffered much from sickness, might not be 
adequate to the crisis, and as Major-General Jesup was 
known to have reached Florida, that officer was directed 
to assume the command, and to prosecute all needful opera- 
tions with the utmost promptitude and vigor. From the 
force at his disposal and the dispositions he has made and 
is instructed to make, and from the very efficient measures 
which it is since ascertained have been taken by Governor 



I 



Eighth Annual Message 477 

Call, there is reason to hope that they will soon be enabled 
to reduce the enemy to subjection. In the meantime, as 
you will perceive from the report of the Secretary, there 
is urgent necessity for further appropriations to suppress 
these hostilities. 

Happily for the interests of humanity, the hostilities with 
the Creeks were brought to a close soon after your ad- 
journment, without that effusion of blood which at one 
time was apprehended as inevitable. The unconditional 
submission of the hostile party was followed by their speedy 
removal to the country assigned them west of the Missis- 
sippi. The inquiry as to alleged frauds in the purchase of 
the reservations of these Indians and the causes of their 
hostilities, requested by the resolution of the House of 
Representatives of the ist of July last to be made by the 
President, is now going on through the agency of com- 
missioners appointed, for that purpose. Their report may 
be expected during your present session. 

The difficulties apprehended in the Cherokee country 
have been prevented, and the peace and safety of that re- 
gion and its vicinity effectually secured, by the timely meas- 
ures taken by the War Department, and still continued. 

The discretionary authority given to General Gaines to 
cross the Sabine and to occupy a position as far west as 
Nacogdoches, in case he should deem such a step necessary 
to the protection of the frontier and to the fulfillment of the 
stipulations contained in our treaty with Mexico, and the 
movement subsequently made by that officer have been 
alluded to in a former part of this message. At the date of 
the latest intelligence from Nacogdoches our troops were 
yet at that station, but the officer who has succeeded General 
Gaines has recently been advised that from the facts known 
at the seat of Government there would seem to be no ade- 
quate cause for any longer maintaining that position, and 
he was accordingly instructed, in case the troops were not 
already withdrawn under the discretionary powers before 
possessed by him, to give the requisite orders for that pur- 
pose on the receipt of the instructions, unless he shall then 



47^ Andrew Jackson 

have in his possession such information as shall satisfy him 
that the maintenance of the post is essential to the protection 
of our frontiers and to the due execution of our treaty 
stipulations, as previously explained to him. 

Whilst the necessities existing during the present year 
for the service of militia and volunteers have furnished new 
proofs of the patriotism of our fellow-citizens, they have 
also strongly illustrated the importance of an increase in the 
rank and file of the Regular Army. The views of this 
subject submitted by the Secretary of War in his report 
meet my entire concurrence, and are earnestly commended 
to the deliberate attention of Congress. In this connection 
it is also proper to remind you that the defects in our present 
militia system are every day rendered more apparent. The 
duty of making further provision by law for organizing, 
arming, and disciplining this arm of defense has been so 
repeatedly presented to Congress by myself and my prede- 
cessors that I deem it sufficient on this occasion to refer to 
the last annual message and to former Executive communi- 
cations in which the subject has been discussed. 

It appears from the reports of the officers charged with 
mustering into service the volunteers called for under the 
act of Congress of the last session that more presented 
themselves at the place of rendezvous in Tennessee than 
were sufficient to meet the requisition which had been made 
by the Secretary of War upon the governor of that State. 
This was occasioned by the omission of the governor to 
apportion the requisition to the different regiments of 
militia so as to obtain the proper number of troops and no 
more. It seems but just to the patriotic citizens who re- 
paired to the general rendezvous under circumstances au- 
thorizing them to believe that their services were needed and 
would be accepted that the expenses incurred by them while 
absent from their homes should be paid by the Government. 
I accordingly recommend that a law to this effect be passed 
by Congress, giving them a compensation which will cover 
their expenses on the march to and from the place of ren- 
dezvous and while there; in connection with which it will 



Eighth Annual Message 479 

also be proper to make provision for such other equitable 
claims growing out of the service of the militia as may 
not be embraced in the existing laws. 

On the unexpected breaking out of hostilities in Florida, 
Alabama, and Georgia it became necessary in some cases 
to take the property of individuals for public use. Pro- 
vision should be made by law for indemnifying the owners; 
and I would also respectfully suggest whether some pro- 
vision may not be made, consistently with the principles of 
our Government, for the relief of the sufiferers by Indian 
depredations or by the operations of our own troops. 

No time was lost after the making of the requisite appro- 
priations in resuming the great national work of completing 
the unfinished fortifications on our seaboard and of placing 
them in a proper state of defense. In consequence, however, 
of the very late day at which those bills were passed, but lit- 
tle progress could be made during the season which has just 
closed. A very large amount of the moneys granted at 
your last session accordingly remains unexpended; but as 
the work will be again resumed at the earliest moment in 
the coming spring, the balance of the existing appropria- 
tions, and in several cases which will be laid before you, 
with the proper estimates, further sums for the like objects, 
may be usefully expended during the next year. 

The recommendations of an increase in the Engineer 
Corps and for a reorganization of the Topographical Corps, 
submitted to you in my last annual message, derive addi- 
tional strength from the great embarrassments experienced 
during the present year in those branches of the service, 
and under which they are now suffering. Several of the 
most important surveys and constructions directed by recent 
laws have been suspended in consequence of the want of 
adequate force in these corps. 

The like observations may be applied to the Ordnance 
Corps and to the general staff, the operations of which 
as they are now organized must either be frequently inter- 
rupted or performed by officers taken from the line of the 
Army, to the great prejudice of the service. 



4^0 Andrew Jackson 

For a general view of the condition of the Military Acad- 
emy and of other branches of the military service not al- 
ready noticed, as well as for fuller illustrations of those 
which have been mentioned, I refer you to the accompany- 
ing documents, and among the various proposals contained 
therein for legislative action I would particularly notice the 
suggestion of the Secretary of War for the revision of the 
pay of the Army as entitled to your favorable regard. 

The national policy, founded alike in interest and in hu- 
manity, so long and so steadily pursued by this Government 
for the removal of the Indian tribes originally settled on 
this side of the Mississippi to the west of that river, may be 
said to have been consummated by the conclusion of the 
late treaty with the Cherokees. The measures taken in the 
execution of that treaty and in relation to our Indian affairs 
generally will fully appear by referring to the accompany- 
ing papers. Without dwelling on the numerous and impor- 
tant topics embraced in them, I again invite your attention 
to the importance of providing a well-digested and compre- 
hensive system for the protection, supervision, and im- 
provement of the various tribes now planted in the Indian 
country. The suggestions submitted by the Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs, and enforced by the Secretary, on this 
subject, and also in regard to the establishment of addi- 
tional military posts in the Indian country, are entitled to 
your profound consideration. Both measures are neces- 
sary, for the double purpose of protecting the Indians from 
intestine war, and in other respects complying with our 
engagements to them, and of securing our western frontier 
against incursions which otherwise will assuredly be made 
on it. The best hopes of humanity in regard to the aborig- 
inal race, the welfare of our rapidly extending settlements, 
and the honor of the United States are all deeply involved 
in the relations existing between this Government and the 
emigrating tribes. I trust, therefore, that the various mat- 
ters submitted in the accompanying documents in respect to 
those relations will receive your early and mature delibera- 
tion, and that it may issue in the adoption of legislative 



Eighth Annual Message 481 

measures adapted to the circumstances and duties of the 
present crisis. 

You are referred to the report of the Secretary of the 
Navy for a satisfactory view of the operations of the De- 
partment under his charge during the present year. In the 
construction of vessels at the different navy-yards and in 
the employment of our ships and squadrons at sea that 
branch of the service has been actively and usefully em- 
ployed. While the situation of our commercial interests 
in the West Indies required a greater number than usual 
of armed vessels to be kept on that station, it is gratifying 
to perceive that the protection due to our commerce in other 
quarters of the w^orld has not proved insufficient. Every 
effort has been made to facilitate the equipment of the ex- 
ploring expedition authorized by the act of the last session, 
but all the preparation necessary to enable it to sail has not 
yet been completed. No means will be spared by the Gov- 
ernment to fit out the expedition on a scale corresponding 
with the liberal appropriations for the purpose and with 
the elevated character of the objects which are to be ef- 
fected by it. 

I beg leave to renew the recommendation made in my last 
annual message respecting the enlistment of boys in our 
naval service, and to urge upon your attention the necessity 
of further appropriations to increase the number of ships 
afloat and to enlarge generally the capacity and force of the 
Navy. The increase of our commerce and our position in re- 
gard to the other powers of the world will always make it 
our policy and interest to cherish the great naval resources of 
our country. 

The report of the Postmaster-General presents a grati- 
fying picture of the condition of the Post-Office Depart- 
ment. Its revenues for the year ending the 30th June last 
were $3,398,455.19, showing an increase of revenue over 
that of the preceding year of $404,878.53. or more than 
13 per cent. The expenditures for the same year were 
$2,755,623.76, exhibiting a surplus of $642,831.43. The 
Department has been redeemed from embarrassment and 



4^2 , Andrew Jackson 

debt, has accumulated a surplus exceeding half a million 
of dollars, has largely extended and is preparing still fur- 
ther to extend the mail service, and recommends a reduc- 
tion of postages equal to about 20 per cent. It is practicing 
upon the great principle which should control every branch 
of our Government of rendering to the public the greatest 
good possible with the least possible taxation to the people. 

The scale of postages suggested by the Postmaster-Gen- 
eral recommends itself, not only by the reduction it pro- 
poses, but by the simplicity of its arrangement, its con- 
formity with the Federal currency, and the improvement it 
will introduce into the accounts of the Department and its 
agents. 

Your particular attention is invited to the subject of mail 
contracts with railroad companies. The present laws pro- 
viding for the making of contracts are based upon the pre- 
sumption that competition among bidders will secure the 
service at a fair price; but on most of the railroad lines 
there is no competition in that kind of transportation, and 
advertising is therefore useless. No contract can now be 
made with them except such as shall be negotiated before 
the time of offering or afterwards, and the power of the 
Postmaster-General to pay them high prices is practically 
without limitation. It would be a relief to him and no 
doubt would conduce to the public interest to prescribe by 
law some equitable basis upon which such contracts shall 
rest, and restrict him by a fixed rule of allowance. Under 
a liberal act of that sort he would undoubtedly be able to 
secure the services of most of the railroad companies, and 
the interest of the Department would be thus advanced. 

The correspondence between the people of the United 
States and the European nations, and particularly with the 
British islands, has become very extensive, and requires the 
interposition of Congress to give it security. No obstacle 
is perceived to an interchange of mails between New York 
and Liverpool or other foreign ports, as proposed by the 
Postmaster-General. On the contrary, it promises, by the 
security it will afford, to facilitate commercial transactions 



Eighth Annual Message 483 

and give rise to an enlarged intercourse among the people 
of different nations, which can not but have a happy effect. 
Through the city of New York most of the correspondence 
between the Canadas and Europe is now carried on, and 
urgent representations have been received from the head 
of the provincial post-office asking the interposition of the 
United States to guard it from the accidents and losses to 
which it is now subjected. Some legislation appears to be 
called for as well by our own interest as by comity to the 
adjoining British provinces. 

The expediency of providing a fireproof building for 
the important books and papers of the Post-Office Depart- 
ment is worthy of consideration. In the present condition 
of our Treasury it is neither necessary nor wise to leave 
essential public interests exposed to so much danger when 
they can so readily be made secure. There are weighty 
considerations in the location of a new building for that 
Department in favor of placing it near the other executive 
buildings. 

The important subjects of a survey of the coast and the 
manufacture of a standard of weights and measures for the 
different customhouses have been in progress for some years 
under the general direction of the Executive and the imme- 
diate superintendence of a gentleman possessing high scien- 
tific attainments. At the last session of Congress the mak- 
ing of a set of weights and measures for each State in the 
Union was added to the others by a joint resolution. 

The care and correspondence as to all these subjects have 
been devolved on the Treasury Department during the last 
year. A special report from the Secretary of the Treasury 
will soon be communicated to Congress, which will show 
what has been accomplished as to the whole, the number 
and compensation of the persons now employed in these 
duties, and the progress expected to be made during the 
ensuing year, with a copy of the various correspondence 
deemed necessary to throw light on the subjects which seem 
to require additional legislation. Claims have been made 
for retrospective allowances in behalf of the superintendent 



484 Andrew Jackson 

and some of his assistants, which I did not feel justified 
in granting. Other claims have been made for large in- 
creases in compensation, which, under all the circumstances 
of the several cases, I declined making without the express 
sanction of Congress. In order to obtain that sanction the 
subject was at the last session, on my suggestion and by 
request of the immediate superintendent, submitted by the 
Treasury Department to the Committee on Commerce of 
the House of Representatives. But no legislative action 
having taken place, the early attention of Congress is now 
invited to the enactment of some express and detailed pro- 
visions in relation to the various claims made for the past, 
and to the compensation and allowances deemed proper for 
the future. 

It is further respectfully recommended that, such being 
the inconvenience of attention to these duties by the Chief 
Magistrate, and such the great pressure of business on the 
Treasury Department, the general supervision of the coast 
survey and the completion of the weights and measures, if 
the works are kept united, should be devolved on a board 
of officers organized specially for that purpose, or on the 
Navy Board attached to the Navy Department. 

All my experience and reflection confirm the conviction 
I have so often expressed to Congress in favor of an 
amendment to the Constitution which will prevent in any 
event the election of the President and Vice-President of 
the United States devolving on the House of Representa- 
tives and the Senate, and I therefore beg leave again to 
solicit your attention to the subject. There were various 
other suggestions in my last annual message not acted 
upon, particularly that relating to the want of uniformity 
in the laws of the District of Columbia, that are deemed 
worthy of your favorable consideration. 

Before concluding this paper I think it due to the various 
Executive Departments to bear testimony to their pros- 
perous condition and to the ability and integrity with which 
they have been conducted. It has been my aim to enforce 
in all of them a vigilant and faithful discharge of the public 



Eighth Annual Message 4^5 

business, and it is gratifying to me to believe that there is 
no just cause of complaint from any quarter at the manner 
in which they have fulfilled the objects of their creation. 

Having now finished the observations deemed proper on 
this the last occasion I shall have of communicating with 
the two Houses of Congress at their meeting, I can not 
omit an expression of the gratitude which is due to the 
great body of my fellow-citizens, in whose partiality and 
indulgence I have found encouragement and support in the 
many difficult and trying scenes through which it has been 
my lot to pass during my public career. Though deeply 
sensible that my exertions have not been crowned with a 
success corresponding to the degree of favor bestowed 
upon me, I am sure that they will be considered as having 
been directed by an earnest desire to promote the good 
of my country, and I am consoled by the persuasion that 
whatever errors have been committed will find a corrective 
in the intelligence and patriotism of those who will succeed 
us. All that has occurred during my Administration is 
calculated to inspire me with increased confidence in the 
stability of our institutions ; and should I be spared to enter 
upon that retirement which is so suitable to my age and 
infirm health and so much desired by me in other respects, 
I shall not cease to invoke that beneficent Being to whose 
providence we are already so signally indebted for the 
continuance of His blessings on our beloved country. 



486 



Andrew Jackson 



A. — Statement of distribution of surplus revenue of $30,000,000 among 
the several States, agreeably to the number of electoral votes for Presi- 
dent and according to the constitutional mode of direct taxation by 
representative population, and the difference arising from those two 
modes of distribution, as per census of 1830: 



State. 


Representa- 
tive 
population. 


Elec- 
toral 
vote. 


Share ac- 
cording to 
system of 
direct taxa- 
tion. 


Share ac- 
cording to 
electoral 
vote. 


Difference 

in favor of 

direct-tax 

mode. 


Difference 
in favor of 
electoral- 
vote mode. 




399,454 

269,327 

610,408 

97,192 

297,665 
280,652 

1,918,578 

319,921 

1,348,072 

75-431 
405,842 
1,023,502 
639,747 
455-025 
429,811 
262,507 

"0,357 
171,904 
625,263 
621,832 
937,901 
343,030 
157,146 
130,419 
28,557 
31,625 


10 

7 

14 

4 

8 

7 

42 

8 

30 

3 
10 

23 
15 
II 
II 

7 

4 

5 

15 

15 
21 

9 

5 
4 
3 
3 


$999,371 

673,813 
1,527,144 
243,159 
744,7" 
702,147 

4,799,978 

800,392 

3,372,662 

188,716 

1,015,352 

2,560,640 

1,600,546 

1,138,400 

1,075,319 

656,751 

276,096 

430,076 
1,564,309 
1,555,725 
2,346,479 

858,206 

393,154 
326,288 

71,445 
79,121 


$1,020,408 
714,286 
1,428,571 
408,163 
816,327 
714,286 

4,285,714 
816,427 

3,061,225 
306,122 

1,020,408 

2,346,939 

1,530,612 

1,122,449 

1,122,449 

714,286 

408,163 

510,204 

1,530,612 

1,530,612 

2,142,85s 

918,368 

510,204 

408,163 

306,122 

306,102 




$21,037 


New Hampshire. . . 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 




40,473 


$98,573 


165,004 
71,616 
12,139 








514,264 




New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 


15,935 


3",437 


117,406 






5,056 




213,701 
69-934 
15,951 




North Carolina. . . . 
South Carolina 






47,130 


A Ipihama 




57,535 


Mississippi 




132,067 
80,128 




Tennessee 

ICpntiirlcv 


33,697 

25, "3 

203,621 






Ohio 






60,162 






117,050 






81,875 


Arkansas 

Michigan 




234,677 
227,001 




Total 


11,991,168 


294 


30,000,000 


30,000,000 


1,486,291 


1,486,291 



Message on Texas and Mexico.* 

(December 21, 1836.) 

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States: During the last session information was 
given to Congress by the Executive that measures had been 
taken to ascertain "the poHtical, mihtary, and civil condi- 
tion of Texas." I now submit for your consideration ex- 
tracts from the report of the agent who had been appointed 
to collect it relative to the condition of that country. 

No steps have been taken by the Executive toward the 
acknowledgment of the independence of Texas, and the 
whole subject would have been left without further re- 
mark on the information now given to Congress were it 
not that the two Houses at their last session, acting sepa- 
rately, passed resolutions " that the independence of Texas 
ought to be acknowledged by the United States whenever 
satisfactory information should be received that it had in 
successful operation a civil government capable of perform- 
ing the duties and fulfilling the obligations of an inde- 
pendent power." This mark of interest in the question of 
the independence of Texas and indication of the views of 
Congress make it proper that I should somewhat in detail 
present the considerations that have governed the Execu- 
tive in continuing to occupy the ground previously taken 
in the contest between Mexico and Texas. 

The acknowledgment of a new state as independent and 
entitled to a place in the family of nations is at all times an 
act of great delicacy and responsibility, but more especially 
so when such state has forcibly separated itself from another 
of which it had formed an integral part and which still 

* Interesting in relation to subsequent developments culminating 
in the "re-annexation of Texas." 

487 



4^8 Andrew Jackson 

claims dominion over it. A premature recognition under 
these circumstances, if not looked upon as justifiable cause 
of war, is always liable to be regarded as a proof of an 
unfriendly spirit to one of the contending parties. All 
questions relative to the government of foreign nations, 
whether of the Old or the New World, have been treated 
by the United States as questions of fact only, and our 
predecessors have cautiously abstained from deciding upon 
them until the clearest evidence was in their possession to 
enable them not only to decide correctly, but to shield their 
decisions from every unworthy imputation. In all the con- 
tests that have arisen out of the revolutions of France, out 
of the disputes relating to the crowns of Portugal and 
Spain, out of the revolutionary movements of those King- 
doms, out of the separation of the American possessions of 
both from the European Governments, and out of the nu- 
merous and constantly occurring struggles for dominion in 
Spanish America, so wisely consistent with our just prin- 
ciples has been the action of our Government that we have 
under the most critical circumstances avoided all censure 
and encountered no other evil than that produced by a tran- 
sient estrangement of good will in those against whom we 
have been by force of evidence compelled to decide. 

It has thus been made known to the world that the uni- 
form policy and practice of the United States is to avoid 
all interference in disputes which merely relate to the in- 
ternal government of other nations, and eventually to recog- 
nize the authority of the prevailing party, without refer- 
ence to our particular interests and views or to the merits 
of the original controversy. Public opinion here is so 
firmly established and well understood in favor of this pol- 
icy that no serious disagreement has ever arisen among our- 
selves in relation to it, although brought under review in a 
variety of forms and at periods when the minds of the peo- 
ple were greatly excited by the agitation of topics purely 
domestic in their character. Nor has any deliberate in- 
quiry ever been instituted in Congress or in any of our 
legislative bodies as to whom belonged the power of origi,- 



Message on Texas and Mexico 4^9 

nally recognizing a new State — a power the exercise of 
which is equivalent under some circumstances to a declara- 
tion of war ; a power nowhere expressly delegated, and only 
granted in the Constitution as it is necessarily involved in 
some of the great powers given to Congress, in that given 
to the President and Senate to form treaties with foreign 
powers and to appoint ambassadors and other public min- 
isters, and in that conferred upon the President to receive 
ministers from foreign nations. 

In the preamble to the resolution of the House of Rep- 
resentatives it is distinctly intimated that the expediency of 
recognizing the independence of Texas should be left to 
the decision of Congress. In this view, on the ground of 
expediency, I am disposed to concur, and do not, therefore, 
consider it necessary to express any opinion as to the strict 
constitutional right of the Executive, either apart from or 
in conjunction with the Senate, over the subject. It is to 
be presumed that on no future occasion will a dispute arise, 
as none has heretofore occurred, between the Executive 
and Legislature in the exercise of the power of recogni- 
tion. It will always be considered consistent with the spirit 
of the Constitution, and most safe, that it should be exer- 
cised, when probably leading to war, with a previous under- 
standing with that body by whom war can alone be declared, 
and by whom all the provisions for sustaining its perils 
must be furnished. Its submission to Congress, which rep- 
resents in one of its branches the States of this Union and 
in the other the people of the United States, where there 
may be reasonable ground to apprehend so grave a conse- 
quence, would certainly afford the fullest satisfaction to 
our own country and a perfect guaranty to all other nations 
of the justice and prudence of the measures which might 

be adopted. 

In making these suggestions it is not my purpose to re- 
lieve myself from the responsibility of expressing my own 
opinions of the course the interests of our country pre- 
scribe and its honor permits us to follow. 

It is scarcely to be imagined that a question of this char- 



49^ Andrew Jackson 

acter could be presented in relation to which it would be 
more difficult for the United States to avoid exciting the 
suspicion and jealousy of other powers, and maintain their 
established character for fair and impartial dealing. But 
on this, as on every trying occasion, safety is to be found 
in a rigid adherence to principle. 

In the contest between Spain and her revolted colonies 
we stood aloof and waited, not only until the ability of the 
new States to protect themselves was fully established, but 
until the danger of their being again subjugated had en- 
tirely passed away. Then, and not till then, were they rec- 
ognized. Such was our course in regard to Mexico her- 
self. The same policy was observed in all the disputes 
growing out of the separation into distinct governments of 
those Spanish American States who began or carried on the 
contest with the parent country united under one form of 
government. We acknowledged the separate independence 
of New Granada, of Venezuela, and of Ecuador only after 
their independent existence was no longer a subject of dis- 
pute or was actually acquiesced in by those with whom 
they had been previously united. It is true that, with re- 
gard to Texas, the civil authority of Mexico has been 
expelled, its invading army defeated, the chief of the Re- 
public himself captured, and all present power to control the 
newly organized Government of Texas annihilated within 
its confines. But, on the other hand, there is, in appearance 
at least, an immense disparity of physical force on the side 
of Mexico. The Mexican Republic under another execu- 
tive is rallying its forces under a new leader and menacing 
a fresh invasion to recover its lost dominion. 

Upon the issue of this threatened invasion the independ- 
ence of Texas may be considered as suspended, and were 
there nothing peculiar in the relative situation of the United 
States and Texas our acknowledgment of its independence 
at such a crisis could scarcely be regarded as consistent 
with that prudent reserve with which we have heretofore 
held ourselves bound to treat all similar questions. But 
there are circumstances in the relations of the two coun- 



Message on Texas and Mexico 49 ^ 

tries which require us to act on this occasion with even 
more than our wonted caution, Texas was once claimed 
as a part of our property, and there are those among our 
citizens who, always reluctant to abandon that claim, can 
not but regard with solicitude the prospect of the reunion 
of the territory to this country. A large proportion of its 
civilized inhabitants are emigrants from the United States, 
speak the same language with ourselves, cherish the same 
principles, political and religious, and are bound to many 
of our citizens by ties of friendship and kindred blood ; and, 
more than all, it is known that the people of that country 
have instituted the same form of government with our own, 
and have since the close of your last session openly resolved, 
on the acknowledgment by us of their independence, to seek 
admission into the Union as one of the Federal States. 
This last circumstance is a matter of peculiar delicacy, and 
forces upon us considerations of the gravest character. 
The title of Texas to the territory she claims is identified 
with her independence. She asks us to acknowledge that 
title to the territory, with an avowed design to treat imme- 
diately of its transfer to the Untied States. It becomes us 
to beware of a too early movement, as it might subject us, 
however unjustly, to the imputation of seeking to establish 
the claim of our neighbors to a territory with a view to its 
subsequent acquisition by ourselves. Prudence, therefore, 
seems to dictate that we should still stand aloof and main- 
tain our present attitude, if not until Mexico itself or one 
of the great foreign powers shall recognize the independ- 
ence of the new Government, at least until the lapse of time 
or the course of events shall have proved beyond cavil or 
dispute the ability of the people of that country to maintain 
their separate sovereignty and to uphold the Government 
constituted by them. Neither of the contending parties can 
justly complain of this course. By pursuing it we are but 
carrying out the long-established policy of our Govern- 
ment — a policy which has secured to us respect and influ- 
ence abroad and inspired confidence at home. 

Having thus discharged my duty, by presenting with 



492 Andrew Jackson 

simplicity and directness the views which after much re- 
flection I have been led to take of this important subject, 
I have only to add the expression of my confidence that if 
Congress shall differ with me upon it their judgment will 
be the result of dispassionate, prudent, and wise delibera- 
tion, with the assurance that during the short time I shall 
continue connected with the Government I shall promptly 
and cordially unite with you in such measures as may be 
deemed best fitted to increase the prosperity and perpetuate 
the peace of our favored country. 



Farewell Address.* 

(March 4, 1837.) 

Fellow-Citizens : Being about to retire finally from pub- 
lic life, I beg leave to offer you my grateful thanks for the 
many proofs of kindness and confidence which I have re- 
ceived at your hands. It has been my fortune in the dis- 
charge of public duties, civil and military, frequently to 
have found myself in difficult and trying situations, where 
prompt decision and energetic action were necessary, and 
where the interest of the country required that high re- 
sponsibilities should be fearlessly encountered ; and it is 
with the deepest emotions of gratitude that I acknowledge 
the continued and unbroken confidence with which you have 
sustained me in every trial. My public life has been a long 
one, and I can not hope that it has at all times been free 
from errors; but I have the consolation of knowing that 
if mistakes have been committed they have not seriously 
injured the country I so anxiously endeavored to serve, and 
at the moment when I surrender my last public trust I leave 
this great people prosperous and happy, in the full enjoy- 
ment of liberty and peace, and honored and respected by 
every nation of the world. 

* "Following the example of Washington," remarks Benton, 
"General Jackson issued a farewell address to the people of the United 
States, at his retiring from the presidency; and, like that of Washing- 
ton, it was principally devoted to the danger of disunion, as a possi- 
bility, and as an event of future contingency; General Jackson had to 
confront it as a present, actual, subsisting danger." Thirty Years' 
View, I., p. 732. 

"Exaltation was the temper in which he left office. He was satisfied 
and triumphant. Not another president in the whole list ever went 
out of office in a satisfied frame of mind, much less with a feeling of 
having completed a certain career in triumph." Sumner's Andrew 
Jackson, p. 385. 

493 



494 Andrew Jackson 

If my humble efforts have in any degree contributed to 
preserve to you these blessings, I have been more than re- 
warded by the honors you have heaped upon me, and, 
above all, by the generous confidence with which you have 
supported me in every peril, and with which you have con- 
tinued to animate and cheer my path to the closing hour of 
my political life. The time has now come when advanced 
age and a broken frame warn me to retire from public con- 
cerns, but the recollection of the many favors you have 
bestowed upon me is engraven upon my heart, and I have 
felt that I could not part from your service without making 
this public acknowledgment of the gratitude I owe you. 
And if I use the occasion to offer to you the counsels of 
age and experience, you wull, I trust, receive them with the 
same indulgent kindness which you have so often extended 
to me, and will at least see in them an earnest desire to 
perpetuate in this favored land the blessings of liberty and 
equal law. 

We have now lived almost fifty years under the Consti- 
tution framed by the sages and patriots of the Revolution. 
The conflicts in which the nations* of Europe were engaged 
during a great part of this period, the spirit in which they 
waged war against each other, and our intimate commer- 
cial connections with every part of the civilized world 
rendered it a time of much difficulty for the Government 
of the United States. We have had our seasons of peace 
and of war, with all the evils which precede or follow a state 
of hostility wath powerful nations. We encountered these 
trials with our Constitution yet in its infancy, and under 
the disadvantages which a new and untried government 
must always feel when it is called upon to put forth its 
whole strength without the lights of experience to guide it 
or the weight of precedents to justify its measures. But 
we have passed triumphantly through all these difficulties. 
Our Constitution is no longer a doubtful experiment, and 
at the end of nearly half a century we find that it has pre- 
served unimpaired the liberties of the people, secured the 
rights of property, and that our country has improved and 



Farewell Address 495 

is flourishing beyond any former example in the history of 
nations. 

In our domestic concerns there is everything to encourage 
us, and if you are true to yourselves nothing can impede 
your march to the highest point of national prosperity. 
The States which had so long been retarded in their im- 
provement by the Indian tribes residing in the midst of 
them are at length relieved from the evil, and this unhappy 
race — the original dwellers in our land — are now placed in 
a situation where we may well hope that they will share in 
the blessings of civilization and be saved from that degrada- 
tion and destruction to which they were rapidly hastening 
while they remained in the States ; and while the safety and 
comfort of our own citizens have been greatly promoted by 
their removal, the philanthropist will rejoice that the rem- 
nant of that ill-fated race has been at length placed beyond 
the reach of injury or oppression, and that the paternal care 
of the General Government will hereafter watch over them 
and protect them. 

If we turn to our relations with foreign powers, we find 
our condition equally gratifying. Actuated by the sincere 
desire to do justice to every nation and to preserve the 
blessings of peace, our intercourse with them has been con- 
ducted on the part of this Government in the spirit of frank- 
ness ; and I take pleasure in saying that it has generally been 
met in a corresponding temper. Difficulties of old stand- 
ing have been surmounted by friendly discussion and the 
mutual desire to be just, and the claims of our citizens, 
which had been long withheld, have at length been acknowl- 
edged and adjusted and satisfactory arrangements made 
for their final payment ; and with a limited, and I trust a 
temporary, exception, our relations with every foreign 
power are now of the most friendly character, our com- 
merce continually expanding, and our flag respected in every 
quarter of the world. 

These cheering and grateful prospects and these mul- 
tiplied favors we owe, under Providence, to the adoption 
of the Federal Constitution. It is no longer a question 



49^ Andrew Jackson 

whether this great country can remain happily united and 
flourish under our present form of government. Experi- 
ence, the unerring test of all human undertakings, has 
shown the wisdom and foresight of those who formed it, 
and has proved that in the union of these States there is a 
sure foundation for the brightest hopes of freedom and 
for the happiness of the people. At every hazard and by 
every sacrifice this Union must be preserved. 

The necessity of watching with jealous anxiety for the 
preservation of the Union was earnestly pressed upon his 
fellow-citizens by the Father of his Country in his Fare- 
well Address. He has there told us that " while experience 
shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will 
always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in 
any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands ; " and he has 
cautioned us in the strongest terms against the formation 
of parties on geographical discriminations, as one of the 
means which might disturb our Union and to which de- 
signing men would be likely to resort. 

The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy of Wash- 
ington to his countrymen should be cherished in the heart 
of every citizen to the latest generation ; and perhaps at no 
period of time could they be more usefully remembered than 
at the present moment; for when we look upon the scenes 
that are passing around us and dwell upon the pages of his 
parting address, his paternal counsels would seem to be not 
merely the offspring of wisdom and foresight, but the voice 
of prophecy, foretelling events and warning us of the evil 
to come. Forty years have passed since this imperishable 
document was given to his countrymen. The Federal Con- 
stitution was then regarded by him as an experiment — and 
he so speaks of it in his Address — but an experiment upon 
the success of which the best hopes of his country depended ; 
and we all know that he was prepared to lay down his life, 
if necessary, to secure to it a full and a fair trial. The trial 
has been made. It has succeeded beyond the proudest 
hopes of those who framed it. Every quarter of this widely 
extended nation has felt its blessings and shared in the 



Farewell Address 497 

general prosperity produced by its adoption. But amid 
this general prosperity and splendid success the dangers of 
which he warned us are becoming every day more evident, 
and the signs of evil are sufficiently apparent to awaken the 
deepest anxiety in the bosom of the patriot. We behold 
systematic efforts publicly made to sow the seeds of discord 
between different parts of the United States and to place 
party divisions directly upon geographical distinctions; to 
excite the South against the North and the North against 
the South, and to force into the controversy the most deli- 
cate and exciting topics — topics upon which it is impossible 
that a large portion of the Union can ever speak without 
strong emotion. Appeals, too, are constantly made to sec- 
tional interests in order to influence the election of the Chief 
Magistrate, as if it were desired that he should favor a par- 
ticular quarter of the country instead of fulfilling the duties 
of his station with impartial justice to all ; and the possible 
dissolution of the Union has at length become an ordinary 
and familiar subject of discussion. Has the warning voice 
of Washington been forgotten, or have designs already 
been formed to sever the Union? Let it not be supposed 
that I impute to all of those who have taken an active part 
in these unwise and unprofitable discussions a want of 
patriotism or of public virtue. The honorable feeling of 
State pride and local attachments finds a place in the bosoms 
of the most enlightened and pure. But while such men are 
conscious of their own integrity and honesty of purpose, 
they ought never to forget that the citizens of other States 
are their political brethren, and that however mistaken they 
may be in their views, the great body of them are equally 
honest and upright with themselves. Mutual suspicions 
and reproaches may in time create mutual hostility, and art- 
ful and designing men will always be found who are ready 
to foment these fatal divisions and to inflame the natural 
jealousies of different sections of the country. The history 
of the world is full of such examples, and especially the 
history of republics. 

What have you to gain by division and dissension ? De- 



49^ Andrew Jackson 

lude not yourselves with the behef that a breach once made 
may be afterwards repaired. If the Union is once severed, 
the Hne of separation will grow wider and wider, and the 
controversies which are now debated and settled in the halls 
of legislation will then be tried in fields of battle and deter- 
mined by the sword. Neither should you deceive your- 
selves with the hope that the first line of separation would 
be the permanent one, and that nothing but harmony and 
concord would be found in the new associations formed 
upon the dissolution of this Union. Local interests would 
still be found there, and unchastened ambition. And if the 
recollection of common dangers, in which the people of 
these United States stood side by side against the common 
foe, the memory of victories w-on by their united valor, the 
prosperity and happiness they have enjoyed under the pres- 
ent Constitution, the proud name they bear as citizens of 
this great Republic — if all these recollections and proofs of 
common interest are not strong enough to bind us together 
as one people, what tie will hold united the new divisions of 
empire when these bonds have been broken and this Union 
dissevered? The first line of separation would not last 
for a single generation ; new fragments would be torn ofif, 
new leaders would spring up, and this great and glorious 
Republic would soon be broken into a multitude of petty 
States, without commerce, without credit, jealous of one 
another, armed for mutual aggression, loaded with taxes to 
pay armies and leaders, seeking aid against each other from 
foreign powers, insulted and trampled upon by the nations 
of Europe, until, harassed with conflicts and humbled and 
debased in spirit, they would be ready to submit to the abso- 
lute dominion of any military adventurer and to surrender 
their liberty for the sake of repose. It is impossible to look 
on the consequences that would inevitably follow the de- 
struction of this Government and not feel indignant when 
we hear cold calculations about the value of the Union and 
have so constantly before us a line of conduct so well calcu- 
lated to weaken its ties. 

There is too much at stake to allow pride or passion to 



Farewell Address 499 

influence your decision. Never for a moment believe tliat 
the great body of the citizens of any State or States can 
dehberately intend to do wrong. They may, under the in- 
fluence of temporary excitement or misguided opinions, 
commit mistakes; they may be misled for a time by the 
suggestions of self-interest; but in a community so enlight- 
ened and patriotic as the people of the United States argu- 
ment will soon make them sensible of their errors, and when 
convinced they will be ready to repair them. If they have 
no higher or better motives to govern them, they will at 
least perceive that their own interest requires them to be 
just to others, as they hope to receive justice at their hands. 

But in order to maintain the Union unimpaired it is ab- 
solutely necessary that the laws passed by the constituted 
authorities should be faithfully executed in every part of 
the country, and that every good citizen should at all times 
stand ready to put down, with the combined force of the 
nation, every attempt at unlawful resistance, under what- 
ever pretext it may be made or whatever shape it may as- 
sume. Unconstitutional or oppressive laws may no doubt 
be passed by Congress, either from erroneous views or the 
want of due consideration; if they are within the reach of 
judicial authority, the remedy is easy and peaceful; and if, 
from the character of the law, it is an abuse of power not 
within the control of the judiciary, then free discussion and 
calm appeals to reason and to the justice of the people will 
not fail to redress the wrong. But until the law shall be 
declared void by the courts or repealed by Congress no in- 
dividual or combination of individuals can be justified in 
forcibly resisting its execution. It is impossible that any 
government can continue to exist upon any other principles. 
It would cease to be a government and be unworthy of the 
name if it had not the power to enforce the execution of its 
own laws within its own sphere of action. 

It is true that cases may be imagined disclosing such a 
settled purpose of usurpation and oppression on the part 
of the Government as would justify an appeal to arms. 
These, however, are extreme cases, which we have no 



r, 



500 Andrew Jackson 

reason to apprehend in a government where the power is in 
the hands of a patriotic people. And no citizen who loves 
his country would in any case whatever resort to forcible 
resistance unless he clearly saw that the time had come when 
a freeman should prefer death to submission; for if such a 
struggle is once begun, and the citizens of one section of 
the country arrayed in arms against those of another in 
doubtful conflict, let the battle result as it may, there will 
be an end of the Union and with it an end to the hopes of 
freedom. The victory of the injured would not secure to 
them the blessings of liberty ; it would avenge their wrongs, 
but they would themselves share in the common ruin. 

But the Constitution can not be maintained nor the Union 
preserved, in opposition to public feeling, by the mere exer- 
tion of the coercive powers confided to the General Govern- 
ment. The foundations must be laid in the affections of 
the people, in the security it gives to life, liberty, character, 
and property in every quarter of the country, and in the 
fraternal attachment which the citizens of the several States 
bear to one another as members of one political family, 
mutually contributing to promote the happiness of each 
other. Hence the citizens of every State should studiously 
avoid everything calculated to wound the sensibility or of- 
fend the just pride of the people of other States, and they 
should frown upon any proceedings within their own bor- 
ders likely to disturb the tranquillity of their political breth- 
ren in other portions of the Union. In a country so exten- 
sive as the United States, and with pursuits so varied, the 
internal regulations of the several States must frequently 
differ from one another in important particulars, and this 
difference is unavoidably increased by the varying prin- 
ciples upon which the American Colonies were originally 
planted — principles which had taken deep root in their social 
relations before the Revolution, and therefore of necessity 
influencing their policy since they became free and inde- 
pendent States. But each State has the unquestionable 
right to regulate its own internal concerns according to its 
own pleasure, and while it does not interfere with the rights 



Farewell Address 501 

of the people of other States or the rights of the Union, 
every State must be the sole judge of the measures proper 
to secure the safety of its citizens and promote their happi- 
ness; and all efforts on the part of people of other States 
to cast odium upon their institutions, and all measures cal- 
culated to disturb their rights of property or to put in jeop- 
ardy their peace and internal tranquillity, are in direct oppo- 
sition to the spirit in which the Union was formed, and 
must endanger its safety. Motives of philanthropy may be 
assigned for this unwarrantable interference, and weak men 
may persuade themselves for a moment that they are labor- 
ing in the cause of humanity and asserting the rights of the 
human race; but everyone, upon sober reflection, will see 
that nothing but mischief can come from these improper 
assaults upon the feelings and rights of others. Rest as- 
sured that the men found busy in this work of discord are 
not worthy of your confidence, and deserve your strongest 
reprobation. 

In the legislation of Congress also, and in every measure 
"^ * of the General Government, justice to every portion of the 
United States should be faithfully observed. . No free gov- 
ernment can stand without virtue in the people and a lofty 
spirit of patriotism, and if the sordid feelings of mere 
selfishness shall usurp the place which ought to be filled by 
public spirit, the legislation of Congress will soon be con- 
verted into a scramble for personal and sectional advan- 
tages. Under our free institutions the citizens of every 
quarter of our country are capable of attaining a high de- 
gree of prosperity and happiness without seeking to profit 
themselves at the expense of others ; and every such attempt 
must in the end fail to succeed, for the people in every part 
of the United States are too enlightened not to understand 
their own rights and interests and to detect and defeat every 
effort to gain undue advantages over them ; and when such 
designs are discovered it naturally provokes resentments 
which can not always be easily allayed. Justice — full and 
ample justice — to every portion of the United States should 
be the ruling principle of every freeman, and should guide 



502 Andrew Jackson 

the deliberations of every public body, whether it be State 
or national. 

It is well known that there have always been those 
amongst us w^ho wish to enlarge the powers of the General 
Government, and experience would seem to indicate that 
there is a tendency on the part of this Government to over- 
step the boundaries marked out for it by the Constitution. 
Its legitimate authority is abundantly sufficient for all the 
purposes for which it was created, and its powers being 
expressly enumerated; there can be no justification for 
claiming anything beyond them. Every attempt to exer- 
cise power beyond these limits should be promptly and 
firmly opposed, for one evil example will lead to other 
measures still more mischievous; and if the principle of 
constructive powers or supposed advantages or temporary 
circumstances shall ever be permitted to justify the assump- 
tion of a power not given by the Constitution, the General 
Government will before long absorb all the powers of legis- 
lation, and you will have in effect but one consolidated 
government. From the extent of our country, its diversi- 
fied interests, different pursuits, and different habits, it is 
too obvious for argument that a single consolidated govern- 
ment would be wholly inadequate to watch over and protect 
its interests ; and every friend of our free institutions should 
be always prepared to maintain unimpaired and in full vigor 
the rights and sovereignty of the States and to confine the 
action of the General Government strictly to the sphere of 
its appropriate duties. '; 

There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on the 
Federal Government so liable to abuse as the taxing power. 
The most productive and convenient sources of revenue 
were necessarily given to it, that it might be able to perform 
the important duties imposed upon it; and the taxes which 
it lays upon commerce being concealed from the real payer 
in the price of the article, they do not so readily attract 
the attention of the people as smaller sums demanded from 
them directly by the taxgatherer. But the tax imposed on 
goods enhances by so much the price of the commodity to 



Farewell Address 5 



o 



J) 



the consumer, and as many of these duties are imposed on 
articles of necessity which are daily used by the great body 
of the people, the money raised by these imposts is drawn 
from their pockets. Congress has no right under the Con- 
stitution to take money from the people unless it is required 
to execute some one of the specific powers intrusted to the 
Government; and if they raise more than is necessary for 
such purposes, it is an abuse of the power of taxation, and 
unjust and oppressive. It may indeed happen that the reve- 
nue will sometimes exceed the amount anticipated when the 
taxes were laid. When, however, this ascertained, it is 
easy to reduce them, and in such a case it is unquestionably 
the duty of the Government to reduce them, for no circum- 
stances can justify it in assuming a power not given to it 
by the Constitution nor in taking away the money of the 
people when it is not needed for the legitimate wants of the 
Government. 

Plain as these principles appear to be, you will yet find 
there is a constant effort to induce the General Government 
to go beyond the limits of its taxing power and to impose 
unnecessary burdens upon the people. Many powerful in- 
terests are continually at work to procure heavy duties on 
commerce and to swell the revenue beyond the real necessi- 
ties of the public service, and the country has already felt 
the injurious effects of their combined influence. They 
succeeded in obtaining a tariff of duties bearing most op- 
pressively on the agricultural and laboring classes of society 
and producing a revenue that could not be usefully em- 
ployed within the range of the powers conferred upon Con- 
gress, and in order to fasten upon the people this unjust 
and unequal system of taxation extravagant schemes of 
internal improvement were got up in various quarters to 
squander the money and to purchase support. Thus one 
unconstitutional measure was intended to be upheld by 
another, and the abuse of the power of taxation was to 
be maintained by usurping the power of expending the 
money in internal improvements. You can not have for- 
gotten the severe and doubtful struggle through which 



504 Andrew Jackson 

we passed when the executive department of the Gov- 
ernment by its veto endeavored to arrest this prodigal 
scheme of injustice and to bring back the legislation of 
Congress to the boundaries prescribed by the Constitu- 
tion. The good sense and practical judgment of the 
people when the subject was brought before them sus- 
tained the course of the Executive, and this plan of uncon- 
stitutional expenditures for the purposes of corrupt influ- 
ence is, I trust, finally overthrown. 

The result of this decision has been felt in the rapid ex- 
tinguishment of the public debt and the large accumulation 
of a surplus in the Treasury, notwithstanding the tariff 
was reduced and is now very far below the amount origi- 
nally contemplated by its advocates. But, rely upon it, the 
design to collect an extravagant revenue and to burden you 
with taxes beyond the economical wants of the Government 
is not yet abandoned. The various interests which have 
combined together to impose a heavy tariff and to produce 
an overflowing Treasury are too strong and have too much 
at stake to surrender the contest. The corporations and 
wealthy individuals who are engaged in large manufactur- 
ing establishments desire a high tariff to increase their gains. 
Designing politicians will support it to conciliate their favor 
and to obtain the means of profuse expenditure for the pur- 
pose of purchasing influence in other quarters; and since 
the people have decided that the Federal Government can 
not be permitted to employ its income in internal improve- 
ments, efforts will be made to seduce and mislead the citi- 
zens of the several States by holding out to them the deceit- 
ful prospect of benefits to be derived from a surplus revenue 
collected by the General Government and annually divided 
among the States; and if, encouraged by these falla- 
cious hopes, the States should disregard the principles of 
economy which ought to characterize every republican gov- 
ernment, and should indulge in lavish expenditures exceed- 
ing their resources, they will before long find themselves 
oppressed with debts which they are unable to pay, and the 
temptation will become irresistible to support a high tariff 



Farewell Address 505 

in order to obtain a surplus for distribution. Do not allow 
yourselves, my fellow-citizens, to be misled on this subject. 
The Federal Government can not collect a surplus for such 
purposes without violating the principles of the Constitu- 
tion and assuming powers which have not been granted. It 
is, moreover, a system of injustice, and if persisted in will 
inevitably lead to corruption, and must end in ruin. The 
surplus revenue will be drawn from the pockets of the 
people — from the farmer, the mechanic, and the laboring 
classes of society; but who will receive it when distributed 
among the States, where it is to be disposed of by leading 
State politicians, who have friends to favor and political 
partisans to gratify? It will certainly not be returned to 
those who paid it and who have most need of it and are 
honestly entitled to it. There is but one safe rule, and that 
is to confine the General Government rigidly within the 
sphere of its appropriate duties. It has no power to raise 
a revenue oi* impose taxes except for the purposes enumer- 
ated in the Constitution, and if its income is found to ex- 
ceed these wants it should be forthwith reduced and the 
burden of the people so far lightened. 

In reviewing the conflicts which have taken place between 
different interests in the United States and the policy pur- 
sued since the adoption of our present form of Government, 
we find nothing that has produced such deep-seated evil 
as the course of legislation in relation to the currency. The 
Constitution of the United States unquestionably intended 
to secure to the people a circulating medium of gold and 
silver. But the establishment of a national bank by Con- 
gress, with the privilege of issuing paper money receivable 
in the payment of the public dues, and the unfortunate 
course of legislation in the several States upon the same 
subject, drove from general circulation the constitutional 
currency and substituted one of paper in its place. 

It was not easy for men engaged in the ordinary pursuits 
of business, whose attention had not been particularly 
drawn to the subject, to foresee all the consequences of a 
currency exclusively of paper, and we ought not on that 



5°^ Andrew Jackson 

account to be surprised at the facility with which laws were 
obtained to carry into effect the paper system. Honest and 
even enlightened men are sometimes misled by the specious 
and plausible statements of the designing. But experience 
has now proved the mischiefs and dangers of a paper cur- 
rency, and it rests with you to determine whether the proper 
remedy shall be applied. 

The paper system being founded on public confidence and 
having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to great and 
sudden fluctuations, thereby rendering property insecure 
and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain. The cor- 
porations which create the paper money can not be relied 
upon to keep the circulating medium uniform in amount. 
In times of prosperity, when confidence is high, they are 
tempted by the prospect of gain or by the influence of those 
who hope to profit by it to extend their issues of paper 
beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands 
of business; and when these issues have been pushed on 
from day to day, until public confidence is at length shaken, 
then a reaction takes place, and they immediately withdraw 
the credits they have given, suddenly curtail their issues, 
and produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the 
circulating medium, which is felt by the whole community. 
The banks by this means save themselves, and the mischiev- 
ous consequences of their imprudence or cupidity are visited 
upon the public. Nor does the evil stop here. These ebbs 
and flows in the currency and these indiscreet extensions 
of credit naturally engender a spirit of speculation injurious 
to the habits and character of the people. We have already 
seen its effects in the wild spirit of speculation in the public 
lands and various kinds of stock which within the last year 
or two seized upon such a multitude of our citizens and 
threatened to pervade all classes of society and to withdraw 
their attention from the sober pursuits of honest industry. 
It is not by encouraging this spirit that we shall best pre- 
serve public virtue and promote the true interests of our 
country; but if your currency continues as exclusively paper 
as it now is, it will foster this eager desire to amass wealth 



Farewell Address S^7 

without labor ; it will multiply the number of dependents on 
bank accommodations and bank favors; the temptation to 
obtain money at any sacrifice will become stronger and 
stronger, and inevitably lead to corruption, which will find 
its way into your public councils and destroy at no distant 
day the purity of your Government. Some of the evils 
which arise from this system of paper press with peculiar 
hardship upon the class of society least able to bear it. A 
portion of this currency frequently becomes depreciated or 
worthless, and all of it is easily counterfeited in such a 
manner as to require peculiar skill and much experience to 
distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine note. These 
frauds are most generally perpetrated in the smaller notes, 
which are used in the daily transactions of ordinary busi- 
ness, and the losses occasioned by them are commonly 
thrown upon the laboring classes of society, whose situa- 
tion and pursuits put it out of their power to guard them- 
selves from these impositions, and whose daily wages are 
necessary for their subsistence. It is the duty of every gov- 
ernment so to regulate its currency as to protect this nu- 
merous class, as far as practicable, from the impositions of 
avarice and fraud. It is more especially the duty of the 
United States, where the Government is emphatically the 
Government of the people, and where this respectable por- 
tion of our citizens are so proudly distinguished from the 
laboring classes of all other nations by their independent 
spirit, their love of liberty, their intelligence, and their high 
tone of moral character. Their industry in peace is the 
source of our wealth and their bravery in war has covered 
us with glory; and the Government of the United States 
will but ill discharge its duties if it leaves them a prey to 
such dishonest impositions. Yet it is evident that their 
interests can not be effectually protected unless silver and 
gold are restored to circulation. 

These views alone of the paper currency are sufficient to 
call for immediate reform ; but there is another considera- 
tion which should still more strongly press it upon your 
attention. 



5o8 Andrew Jackson 

Recent events have proved that the paper-money system 
of this country may be used as an engine to undermine your 
free institutions, and that those who desire to engross all 
power in the hands of the few and to govern by corruption 
or force are aware of its power and prepared to employ it. 
Your banks now furnish your only circulating medium, and 
money is plenty or scarce according to the quantity of notes 
issued by them. While they have capitals not greatly dis- 
proportioned to each other, they are competitors in business, 
and no one of them can exercise dominion over the rest ; 
and although in the present state of the currency these banks 
may and do operate injuriously upon the habits of business, 
the pecuniary concerns, and the moral tone of society, yet, 
from their number and dispersed situation, they can not 
combine for the purposes of political influence, and what- 
ever may be the dispositions of some of them their power 
of mischief must necessarily be confined to a narrow space 
and felt only in their immediate neighborhoods. 

But when the charter for the Bank of the United States 
was obtained from Congress it perfected the schemes of the 
paper system and gave to its advocates the position they 
have struggled to obtain from the commencement of the 
Federal Government to the present hour. The immense 
capital and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it enabled it 
to exercise despotic sway over the other banks in every part 
of the country. From its superior strength it could seri- 
ously injure, if not destroy, the business of any one of 
them which might incur its resentment; and it openly 
claimed for itself the power of regulating the currency 
throughout the United States. In other words, it asserted 
(and it undoubtedly possessed) the power to make money 
plenty or scarce at its pleasure, at any time and in any quar- 
ter of the Union, by controlling the issues of other banks and 
permitting an expansion or compelling a general contrac- 
tion of the circulating medium, according to its own will. 
The other banking institutions were sensible of its strength, 
and they soon generally became its obedient instruments, 
ready at all times to execute its mandates; and with the 



Farewell Address 509 

banks necessarily went also that numerous class of persons 
in our commercial cities who depend altogether on bank 
credits for their solvency and means of business, and who 
are therefore obliged, for their own safety, to propitiate the 
favor of the money power by distinguished zeal and devo- 
tion in its service. The result of the ill-advised legislation 
which established this great monopoly was to concentrate 
the whole moneyed power of the Union, with its boundless 
means of corruption and its numerous dependents, under 
the direction and command of one acknowledged head, thus 
organizing this particular interest as one body and securing 
to it unity and concert of action throughout the United 
States, and enabling it to bring forward upon any occasion 
its entire and undivided strength to support or defeat any 
measure of the Government. In the hands of this formi- 
dable power, thus perfectly organized, was also placed un- 
limited dominion over the amount of the circulating 
medium, giving it the power to regulate the value of prop- 
erty and the fruits of labor in every quarter of the Union, 
and to bestow prosperity or bring ruin upon any city or 
section of the country as might best comport with its own 
interest or policy. 

We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed power, 
thus organized and with such a weapon in its hands, would 
be likely to use it. The distress and alarm which pervaded 
and agitated the whole country when the Bank of the 
United States waged war upon the people in order to com- 
pel them to submit to its demands can not yet be forgotten. 
The ruthless and unsparing temper with which whole cities 
and communities were oppressed, individuals impoverished 
and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly 
changed into one of gloom and despondency ought to be 
indelibly impressed on the memory of the people of the 
United States. If such was its power in a time of peace, 
what would it not have been in a season of war, with an 
enemy at your doors? No nation but the freemen of the 
United States could have come out victorious from such a 
contest; yet, if you had not conquered, the Government 



5^0 Andrew Jackson 

would have passed from the hands of the many to the hands 
of the few, and this organized money power from its secret 
conclave would have dictated the choice of your highest 
officers and compelled you to make peace or war, as best 
suited their own wishes. The forms of your Government 
might for a time have remained, but its living spirit would 
have departed from it. 

The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by the 
bank are some of the fruits of that system of policy which 
is continually striving to enlarge the authority of the Fed- 
eral Government beyond the limits fixed by the Constitu- 
tion. The powers enumerated in that instrument do not 
confer on Congress the right to establish such a corporation 
as the Bank of the United States, and the evil consequences 
which followed may warn us of the danger of departing 
from the true rule of construction and of permitting tem- 
porary circumstances or the hope of better promoting the 
public welfare to influence in any degree our decisions upon 
the extent of the authority of the General Government. 
Let us abide by the Constitution as it is written, or amend 
it in the constitutional mode if it is found to be defective. 

The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be 
sufficient to prevent Congress from again chartering such 
a monopoly, even if the Constitution did not present an in- 
superable objection to it. But you must remember, my fel- 
low-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price 
of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to se- 
cure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watch- 
ful in your States as well as in the Federal Government. 
The power which the moneyed interest can exercise, when 
concentrated under a single head and with our present sys- 
tem of currency, was sufficiently demonstrated in the strug- 
gle made by the Bank of the United States. Defeated in 
the General Government, the same class of intriguers and 
politicians will now resort to the States and endeavor to 
obtain there the same organization which they failed to per- 
petuate in the Union ; and with specious and deceitful plans 
of public advantages and State interests and State pride 



Farewell Address 511 

they will endeavor to establish in the different States one 
moneyed institution with overgrown capital and exclusive 
privileges sufficient to enable it to control the operations of 
the other banks. Such an institution will be pregnant with 
the same evils produced by the Bank of the United States, 
although its sphere of action is more confined, and in the 
State in which it is chartered the money power will be able 
to embody its whole strength and to move together with 
undivided force to accomplish any object it may wish to 
attain. You have already had abundant evidence of^ its 
power to inflict injury upon the agricultural, mechanical, 
and laboring classes of society, and over those whose en- 
gagements in trade or speculation render them dependent on 
bank facilities the dominion of the State monopoly will be 
absolute and their obedience unlimited. With such a bank 
and a paper currency the money power would in a few years 
govern the State and control its measures, and if a suffi- 
cient number of States can be induced to create such estab- 
lishments the time will soon come when it will again take 
the field against the United States and succeed in perfect- 
ing and perpetuating its organization by a charter from 
Congress. 

It is one of the serious evils of our present system of 
banking that it enables one class of society — and that by no 
means a numerous one — by its control over the currency, to 
act injuriously upon the interests of all the others and to 
exercise more than its just proportion of influence in politi- 
cal affairs. The agricultural, the mechanical, and the labor- 
ing classes have little or no share in the direction of the 
great moneyed corporations, and from their habits and the 
nature of their pursuits they are incapable of forming ex- 
tensive combinations to act together with united force. 
Such concert of action may sometimes be produced in a 
single city or in a small district of country by means of per- 
sonal communications with each other, but they have no 
regular or active correspondence with those who are en- 
gaged in similar pursuits in distant places; they have but 
little patronage to give to the press, and exercise but a small 



512 Andrew Jackson 

share of influence over it ; they have no crowd of dependents 
about them who hope to grow rich without labor by their 
countenance and favor, and who are therefore always ready 
to execute their wishes. The planter, the farmer, the me- 
j chanic, and the laborer all know that their success depends 
! upon their own industry and economy, and that they must 
I not expect to become suddenly rich by the fruits of their ^ 
toil. Yet these classes of society form the great body of the 
people of the United States ; they are the bone and sinew of 
the country— jpen who love liberty and desire nothing but 
equal rights and equal laws, and who, moreover, hold the 
great mass of our national wealth, although it is distributed 
in moderate amounts among the millions of freemen who 
possess it. But with overwhelming numbers and wealth on 
their side they are in constant danger of losing their fair 
influence in the Government, and with difiiculty maintain 
their just rights against the incessant efforts daily made to 
encroach upon them. The mischief springs from the power 
which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency 
which they are able to control, from the multitude of cor- 
porations with exclusive privileges which they have suc- 
ceeded in obtaining in the different States, and which are 
employed altogether for their benefit; and unless you be- 
come more watchful in your States and check this spirit of 
monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges you will in the 
end find that the most important powers of Government 
have been given or bartered away, and the control over your 
dearest interests has passed into the hands of these cor- 
porations. 

The paper-money system and its natural associations — 
monopoly and exclusive privileges — have already struck 
their roots too deep in the soil, and it will require all your 
efforts to check its further growth and to eradicate the evil. 
The men who profit by the abuses and desire to perpetuate 
them will continue to besiege the halls of legislation in the 
General Government as well as in the States, and will seek 
by every artifice to mislead and deceive the public servants. 
It is to yourselves that you must look for safety and the 



Farewell Address 513 

means of guarding and perpetuating your free institutions. 
In your hands is rightfully placed the sovereignty of the 
country, and to you everyone placed in authority is ulti- 
mately responsible. It is always in your power to see that 
the wishes of the people are carried into faithful execution, 
and their will, when once made known, must sooner or later 
be obeyed; and while the people remain, as I trust they ever 
will, uncorrupted and incorruptible, and continue watchful 
and jealous of their rights, the Government is safe, and the 
cause of freedom will continue to triumph over all its 
enemies. 

But it will require steady and persevering exertions on 
your part to rid yourselves of the iniquities and mischiefs of 
the paper system and to check the spirit of monopoly and 
other abuses which have sprung up with it, and of which it is 
the main support. So many interests are united to resist all 
reform on this subject that you must not hope the conflict 
will be a short one nor success easy. My humble efforts 
have not been spared during my administration of the Gov- 
ernment to restore the constitutional currency of gold and 
silver, and something, I trust, has been done toward the 
accomplishment of this most desirable object; but enough 
yet remains to require all your energy and perseverance. 
The power, however, is in your hands, and the remedy must 
and will be applied if you determine upon it. 

While I am thus endeavoring to press upon your atten- 
tion the principles which I deem of vital importance in the 
domestic concerns of the country, I ought not to pass over 
without notice the important considerations which should 
govern your policy toward foreign powers. It is unques- 
tionably our true interest to cultivate the most friendly 
understanding with every nation and to avoid by every 
honorable means the calamities of war, and we shall best 
attain this object by frankness and sincerity in our foreign 
intercourse, by the prompt and faithful execution of 
treaties, and by justice and impartiality in our conduct to all. 
But no nation, however desirous of peace, can hope to es- 
cape occasional collisions with other powers, and the sound- 



5^^ Andrew Jackson 



est dictates of policy require that we should place ourselves 
in a condition to assert our rights if a resort to force should 
ever become necessary. Our local situation, our long line 
of seacoast, indented by numerous bays, with deep rivers 
opening into the interior, as well as our extended and still 
increasing commerce, point to the Navy as our natural 
means of defense. It will in the end be found to be the 
cheapest and most effectual, and now is the time, in a season 
of peace and with an overflowing revenue, that we can year 
after year add to its strength without increasing the burdens 
of the people. It is your true policy, for your Navy will 
not only protect your rich and flourishing commerce in dis- 
■ tant seas, but will enable you to reach and annoy the enemy 
land will give to defense its greatest efficiency by meeting 
'danger at a distance from home. It is impossible by any 
line of fortifications to guard every point from attack 
against a hostile force advancing from the ocean and select- 
ing its object, but they are indispensable to protect cities 
from bombardment, dockyards and naval arsenals from de- 
struction, to give shelter to merchant vessels in time of war 
and to single ships or weaker squadrons when pressed by 
superior force. Fortifications of this description can not 
be too soon completed and armed and placed in a condition 
of the most perfect preparation. The abundant means we 
now possess can not be applied in any manner more useful 
to the country, and when this is done and our naval force 
sufficiently strengthened and our militia armed we need not 
fear that any nation will wantonly insult us or needlessly 
provoke hostilities. We shall more certainly preserve peace 
when it is well understood that we are prepared for war. 

In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting 
counsels, I have brought before you the leading principles 
upon which I endeavored to administer the Government in 
the high office with which you twice honored me. Know- 
ing that the path of freedom is continually beset by enemies 
who often assume the disguise of friends, I have devoted 
the last hours of my public life to warn you of the dangers. 
The progress of the United States under our free and happy 



Farewell Address 515 

• 

institutions has surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the 
founders of the Repubhc. Our growth has been rapid be- 
yond all former example in numbers, in wealth, in knowl- 
edge, and all the useful arts which contribute to the com- 
forts and convenience of man,- and from the earliest ages of 
history to the present day there never have been thirteen 
millions of people associated in one political body who en- 
joyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of these 
United States. You have no longer any cause to fear dan- 
ger from abroad ; your strength and power are well known 
throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gal- 
lant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among your- 
selves — from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed 
ambition and inordinate thirst for power — that factions will 
be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such de- 
signs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you 
have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest 
of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has 
showered on this favored land blessings without number, 
and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve 
it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in 
His hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the 
favors He has bestowed and enable you, with pure hearts 
and pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend 
to the end of time the great charge He has committed to 
your keeping. 

My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing 
health warn me that before long I must pass beyond the 
reach of human events and cease to feel the vicissitudes of 
human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent 
in a land of liberty and that He has given me a heart to love 
my country with the affection of a son. And filled with 
gratitude for your constant and unwavering kindness, I 
bid you a last and affectionate farewell. 



Bibliography. 

I. Documentary. 

There is no complete collection of Jackson's writings ; his 
State Papers form part of Volumes II and III of Richard- 
son's Messages and Papers of the Presidents. There are 
about fifty Jackson letters in the Library of the Pennsyl- 
vania Historical Society, Philadelphia; a larger number in 
the Library of Congress. 

The Congressional Debates, 1825-1837; Benton's 
Abridgment of Debates in Congress, and the Documents 
(House and Senate, XlXth-XXVth Congresses, see Mc- 
Kee's Indexes), contain the official speech and comment 
bearing directly on Jackson's administrations. Benton is 
careful to include all that is essentially defensive of Jackson. 
The great decisions of the Supreme Court during Jackson's 
administrations are reported by Peters, 1828-1842. 

Of a documentary nature is much of the writings 
(speeches) of Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and Benton, during 
the Jackson period; Benton's Thirty Years' J'iczv contains 
excerpts from lesser men who attacked or defended Jackson. 

II. Biographical. 

William Graham Sumner's Andrew Jackson, in the 
American Statesman Series, is an admirable biography and 
contains an ample bibliography of writings down to 1822; 
James Parton's Life of Jackson, 3 Vols., with bibliog- 
raphy; Joseph M. Rogers's Thomas H. Benton, in the 
American Crisis Biographies, and the same author's The 
True Henry Clay, contain much about Jackson. See also 
the biographical list for Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and 
Monroe of the present series. No public man of his time 
was more viciously attacked or more ardently defended than 
Jackson. 

III. Historical. 

For the general history of the country during Jackson's 
public career see Schouler's History of the United States, 

S«7 



5^8 Andrew Jackson 

III and IV; Von Holst's Constitutional History of the 
United States, 1828-1846; McMasters's History of the 
People of the United States, V and VI ; Thorpe's Consti- 
tutional History of the United States, II; Thorpe's Con- 
stitutional History of the American People, I, 61, 137, 232, 
233; R. T. Stevenson's The Growth of the Nation, 1809- 
1837, chapters x-xiv; Thorpe's Civil War: the National 
View, chapters i, ii, iii; Alexander Johnston's critical 
papers on American history during the Jackson period, in 
Lalor's Cyclopccdia; and the bibhography for Jackson in 
Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, VII, 348-349. 
Of special value is William McDonald's Jacksonian 
Democracy, 

For the history of the political issues of the time, see the 
bibliography already given in the volumes of the present 
series devoted to Monroe, Clay, Webster, and Calhoun : 
e. g., Tariff, Nullification, the Bank, etc. 

George Tucker's History of the United States, IV, 
chapter xxvi ; R. McK. Ormsby's Whig Party, chapters 
xvii, xviii ; H. A. Wise's Seven Decades ; Martin Van 
Buren's Inquiry into Political Parties; Amos Kendall's 
Autobiography; Josiah Quincy's Figures of the Past; W. 
L. Royall's Andrew Jackson and the Bank; Samuel Ty- 
ler's Memoir of Roger B. Taney ; A. S. Bolles's Financial 
History of the United States, II; Joseph Story's Com- 
mentaries, Sees. 1374-1399; J. A. Hamilton's Reminis- 
cences, chapters vi-viii ; D. F. Houston's Critical Study of 
Nidlification {Harz>ard Historical Studies, III) ; A. H. 
Stephens's Constitutional Viezv of the War Between the 
States; J. D. Goss's History of Tariff Administration {Co- 
lumbia College Studies, I) ; F. W. Taussig's History of the 
Tariff; Taussig's State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff; 
Goddard's Bank of the United States; W. M. Gouge's 
Short History of Money and Banking; Hildreth's Banks, 
Banking, and Paper Currency; E. G. Bourne's Surplus 
Revenue of 18^7; W. G. Sumner's American Currency; 
E. R. Johnson's River and Harbor Bills (Annals of the 
American Academy of Political and Social Science, II, 782) ; 
E, C. Mason's Veto Pozver; S. Sato's Land Question (J. 
H. U. Studies, IV, Nos. 7-9) ; Van Santvoord's Chief 
Justices; Sargent's Public Men and Events; J. L. Bishop's 



Bibliography 519 

History of American Manufactures; G. T. Curtis's James 
Buchanan; C. F.Dunbar's Lan's Relating to Finance; 
John Quincy Adams's Memoirs; Hugh McCullougii's 
Men and Measures of Half a Century; S. G. Goodrich's 
Recollections of a Lifetime; A. M, McLaughlin's Lczvis 
Cass; Seba Smith's Letters of Major Jack Dozvning; E. 
M. Shephard's Martin Van Buren ; A. D, Morse's Politi- 
cal Jnfluence of Andrezv Jackson {Political Science Quar- 
terly, I, 153-162) ; J. B. Hammond's History of Political 
Parties in the State of New York, 1789-1840, 2 Vols.; 
Greeley's American Conflict, I. 

For an extended bibliography of the Jackson period see 
Selected Bibliography and Guide, Part HI, by Francis N. 
Thorpe, Barrie & Sons, Philadelphia, 1908. 



Index 



Abolition. See Slavery. 

Adams, John, French criticisms, 

414. 
Adrianople, Treaty of, 88. 
Agriculture, unaffected by tariff, 45 ; 
in relation to commerce and man- 
ufacture, 47 ; effects of tariff on 
agricultural products, 116; condi- 
tions, 133; advantageous eft'ects 
of Canadian trade on, 136; pros- 
perity in South Carolina, 221 ; 
general prosperous conditions, 
282, 361, 400; power of Congress 
over French agricultural interests, 
373 ; treaty stipulations provid- 
ing aid for Indians, 385 ; policies 
for general benefit, 419 ; effects of 
excessive tariff upon, 503. 

Alabama, attempt of Indians to 
maintain independent government 
in, 57-58; removal of Indians, 
no, 112, 147; Indian affairs, 114. 
131; district courts, 152, 197; 
banking in, 160; payment on pub- 
lic lands, 316; indemnification for 
confiscated property, 479 ; tabular 
statistics for proposed distribu- 
tion of surplus revenue, 486. 

Algiers, removal of U. S. salaried 
consul, 364. 

Aliens, disqualifications of, 167. 

Amendment to Constitution. See 
Constitution. 

American Quarterly Rezneiv. arti- 
cle on United States Bank, 27^- 

Annuities paid to Indians, 434- 

Anti-nullification proclamation, bee 
Nullification. 

Anti-slavery movement. See Slav- 
ery. 

Antwerp, bombardment of, spolia- 
tion claims, 452. 

Appointment, powers of, under the 
Constitution, 339. 340 ; president s 
powers of, 342; by president for 
protection of public property, 343 ; 
by president, of officer in custody 
of public money, 344- See also 
Removal. . 

Appropriation, for pensions, 50; 
right of, 69-71 ; for external im- 



provements, increase in, 74 ; pro- 
posed constitutional amendment, 
77, 79 ; connection with tariff, 80 ; 
effect on public debt, 81 ; and 
manufacture, 81 ; direct, 95 ; for 
internal improvements, 95, 97, 98, 
393-396, 464-465 ; objection to lo- 
cal, 100 ; need for Congress to ab- 
stain from unnecessary, 296 ; 
powers of Congress, 318; for in- 
ternal improvements, from pro- 
ceeds of public lands, 319; dispo- 
sition of revenue for, 376 ; by act 
of Congress, necessary for pay- 
ment of claims of Bank of the 
United Stales, 380; by Congress, 
estimated (7th annual message) 
418; for fortifications, failure to 
pass bill, 430 ; for navy, recom- 
mended to prepare for French 
hostility, 449; in relation to taxa- 
tion, 462-463 ; for fortifications 
on seaboard, 479. 

Arbitration for South Carolina dif- 
ficulties, 213. 

Arbitration of boundary claims. 
See Boundaries. 

Archives of Florida taken by Spain, 
180, 362, 402. 

Argentine Republic, U. S. claims in, 
292-293 ; expected representation 
in U. S., 366 ; minister to U. S., 

404- 

Arkansas, Mexican boundary dis- 
pute, 92; tabular statistics for 
proposed distribution of surplus 
revenue, 486. 

Armored vessels. See Vessels. 

Army, condition of, 54-55. i"?.. 300. 
384; organization of, 194; discon- 
tinuance of extra allowances, 
428 ; services, 429 ". duties, 430- 
431; need for enlargement, 47S ; 
revision of p.ty suggested, 480. 

Arsenals, care of, 119; equipment 
of troops in public, in South Car- 
olina, 208. _ 

Arrest, provisions for, in South 
Carolina, 209. 

Articles of Confederation, Indian 
affairs under, 127-128; defects of 
government under, 2i7 ; defini- 



Sai 



522 



Index 



tion of the Union under, 237 ; 
amendment as to land grants, 
306 ; Maryland witholds consent 
to, 307 ; not acceptable to States, 
308 ; resolutions of Congress on 
ratification of, 309 ; signed by 
Maryland, 310. 

Artillery, marine corps to be merged 
in, 61. 

Asia, commerce with, 182. 

Atkinson, Gen., leads troops against 
Indians, 194. 

Attorney-General, duties and stand- 
ing of, 51-52; a cabinet officer, 
82; extension of duties, 121-122; 
opinions on claims of Bank of 
tiie United States cited, 381. 

Austria, relations with U. S., 39, 
361, 402, 452 ; treaty with U. S., 
93, 181 ; commerce with, 142. 



Bahamas, erection of light-houses 
on, 283. 

Balearic islands, duties on Ameri- 
can vessels in ports, 287. 

Bank of the United States, refusal 
to recharter, 12; paper on, 14; 
nullification speeches, 21 ; tariff 
bill speech in House, 24 ; Jack- 
son's attack on, 35 ; govern- 
ment debt, 48 ; expiration of char- 
ter, 64, 508-510; question of re- 
charter of, 82, 123-124,262; in re- 
lation to State banks, 124; Jack- 
son's 3d annual message, 133 ; 
veto of bill to recharter, 154-176; 
4th annual message, 177; surren- 
der of stock certificates, 189; im- 
peachments on character, 190; re- 
moval of public deposits, 261, 265, 
348, 381 ; asks for new charter, 
263 ; substitutes for, 264 ; to be 
abolished, 266 ; need for Congress 
to plan substitute, 267 ; violation 
of charter, 270 ; support of press, 
2TZ ; administration, 2T>,, z^t, 278 ; 
State banks as substitutes for, 278, 
383 ; expenditures, 274, 275, 276, 
2^^ ; 5th annual message, 282 ; 
French payments, 284 ; attempt to 
influence elections, 297-298, 350 ; 
influence on press, 298 ; with- 
drawal of charter, 299 ; dismissal 
of Secretary of Treasury, 339 ; 
placing of public moneys in, 345 ; 
sanction of president for transfer 
of public deposits from, 347 ; res- 
olutions of Maine on removal of 
public deposits from, 351-352; 
resolutions of New Jersey, 352- 
354; resolutions of Ohio, 354- 
355 ; results of administrative 
power independent of president, 



356; Jackson's 6th annual mes- 
sage, 361 ; postponement of pay- 
ment of national debt, 378 ; re- 
duced finances, 379 ; retains divi- 
dends, 379-380 ; recommendation 
for suspension of charter, 382 ; 
7th annual message, 399 ; debt of 
government to, owing to non-pay- 
ment of French claims, 408 ; re- 
ceipt of bills in payment of pub- 
lic revenue should be discontin- 
ued by Congress, 421-422; antici- 
pated benefits on establishment, 
422-425 ; attitude of the executive 
against, 426-427 ; 8th annual mes- 
sage, 451 ; evil effects, 469; advo- 
cates express distrust of State 
banks, 472 ; failure to make pay- 
ment on account of stock held by 
government, 473 ; expiration of 
charter, 473-474 ; probable at- 
tempts to re-establish itself, 511. 

Banks and banking, payments on 
public debt, 48 ; proposition for 
establishment of national bank, 
64, 466-467 ; control should not 
be subject to political power, 280 ; 
reform of banking systems, 383- 
422 ; effects of disposition of sur- 
plus revenue in banks, 459 ; ex- 
cessive issues of banks, 467, 468 ; 
legislation as to discontinuance 
of small notes, 469 ; inflated cred- 
its in books of western banks, 
470-471 ; extension of credits in 
relation to sales of public lands, 
470-471 ; legislation as to deposit 
banks, 475 ; effects of Bank of the 
United States and paper currency 
on, 508-510. See also. Bank of 
the United States ; State banks. 

Barbary Powers, relations with U. 
S., 40, 364, 404, 455- 

Barton, , U. S. minister to 

France, recalled to U. S., 447. 

Beaufort (S. C), port of entry, 223. 

Belgium, treaty between U. S. and, 
290, 363-364 ; U. S. relations with, 
399. 403-404 ; spoliation claims, 
452. 

Benton, T. H., "Thirty years' 
view" cited, 16, 35, 66, 154, 200, 
261, 325, 493. 

Bills of credit, emission by States 
forbidden, 466. 

Blriir, Gen., 21. 

Black Sea, free navigation, 39 ; 
American vessels excluded from, 
88; navigation of, 182. 

Bogota (South America), confer- 
ence at, 291. 

Bolivia, conditions, 183-184, 293. 

Boundaries, treaty of Ghent, 37 ; 
question of northeastern bound- 



Index 



523 



ary between England and U. S., 
90, 136, 178-179, 282-283, 361, 
399, 400-401, 452 ; between U. S. 
and Mexico, 90, 92, 144, 182,292, 
365, 404, 454- 

Bounties, fishing. See Fishing 
bounties. 

Brazil, relations with U. S., 41, 
144-145. 292, 364, 404, 452; con- 
ditions in, 183 ; U. S., representa- 
tion in, 366. 

Buenos Ayres, U. S. relations-^with, 
145, 183, 366. 

Buildings, officers in charge of, ap- 
pointed by president, 343. 



Calhoun, John C, Jackson's atti- 
tude toward, 13, 14; relations 
with Jackson, 21 ; resolutions, 22 ; 
speeches on nullification, 27-28 ; 
nullification leadership, 29. 

Call, Gov., war with the Seminoles, 
476. 

Canada, commerce with, 136. 

Canals, appropriations for, 70 ; gov- 
ernment's responsibilities, 76, 79 ; 
Congress in relation to construc- 
tion of, 97 ; prospects of, in Cen- 
tral America, 144; applications 
for construction by government 
not presented, 395 ; government 
control through appropriations 
for, 465. See also, Louisville and 
Portland Canal. 

Canary Islands, duties on American 
vessels in ports, 287. 

Caravans, internal trade by means 
of, 182. 

Castle Pinckney, removal of Cus- 
tom-house from Charleston to, 
223. 

Census, Jackson's ist annual mes- 
sage, 63; of 1830, distribution of 
surplus revenue (tabular statis- 
tics), 486. 

Central America, relations with, 144, 
1 82, 292, 404; conditions in, 182; 
U. S., representation in, 366. 

Certificates unpaid by Bank of 
United States, 270. 

Charleston (S. C), plans for forti- 
fication of, 18, 23; conduct of 
British consul at, 28 ; prepara- 
tions for military defense, 202 ; 
defense of, 208 ; removal of cus- 
toms-house to Castle Pinckney, 
223 ; results of prevention of rev- 
enue laws, 235-236. 

Charters, renewal of bank, 165. 
See also, Bank of the United 
States. 

Cherokee Indians, 58 ; treaties with, 
129, 480; in Georgia, 133. i47. 



196; complications in delay in 
removal of, 385 ; unprepared to 
remove to western reservations, 
433; 8th annual message, 451; 
peace maintained, 477. 

Chickasaw Indians, removal to res- 
ervations, 82, III, 112, 147. 

Chili, conditions in, 144, 183; U. S. 
treaty with, 292 ; U. S. relations 
with, 404. 

Chillicothe, transfer of public de- 
posits to state banks, 347. 

China, commerce with, 143. 

Choctaw' Indians, 58 ; removal to 
western reservations, 82, 11 1, 
147; condition of, 130. 

Cholera, at Havana, 289. 

Cincinnati (O.), transfer of public 
deposits to state banks, 347. 

Circuit courts, extension of, 62-63 ; 
lack of sufficient number, 152, 
197 ; of U. S., in relation to State 
courts, 229 ; defect of judicial 
system through insufficiency of, 
390. See also. Courts. 

Clay, Henry, and Jackson, 14; com- 
promise tariff bill, 29 ; speech in 
defense of Senate for its condem- 
nation of Jackson, 325 ; principles 
as to deposit of public lands dis- 
approved by Ohio, 354. 

Clearances, Governor of South 
Carolina asks for power to grant, 
208. 

Cocoa, forbidden cargo to American 
vessels, 85 ; reduction of duty on, 

74- 

Coffee, duty on, 47, 74 : forbidden 
cargo for American vessels, 85. 

Colombia, Republic of, changes in, 
182; U. S., relations with, 291; 
tariff concessions, 144; probable 
reunion of Xew Granada, V'cn- 
ezuela and Ecuador, 365. 

Colonial trade, English. See Eng- 
land. 

Columbia (S. C), Ordinance of 
Nullification passed, 200-201 ; leg- 
islature assemble at 207 ; con- 
vention of November (1832), 209, 
210. 

Commerce with France, 37-38. 138- 
139; with Spain, 38; with Aus- 
tria, 39, 93 ; effect of opening of 
Black Sea, 30 ; protection of 
Pacific, 40; with Peru, 41 ; condi- 
tions of, 45-46. 136, 177; protec- 
tion by warships, 60; at tune of 
2d annual message, 82 ; with 
England, 84-85 : Danish indem- 
nity for spoliations upon L'. S., 
89-90; with Mexico, 90. 144; for- 
eign, 93. J34. 14-2-145. 3<^i: in- 
ternal improvements attendant 



524 



Index 



on, 94-95 ; impetus to, by internal 
improvements, 104; effects of tar- 
iff on, 115; protection of, 119, 
141; with the Indians, 125-126; 
with the Orient, 133, 182; pros- 
perity, 178, 282, 400, 452, 495; 
with Russia, 181 ; treaty with 
Russia, 286 ; 403 ; effects of 
treaty with Turkey in, 181 ; with 
Turkey, 364 ; effects of strug- 
gle in Mexico, 182; effect of 
South American conditions on, 
183 ; beneficial effects in fi- 
nances, 184; navy inadequate to 
protection of, 196, 396, 436; of 
South Carolina to be free from 
federal government's interven- 
tion, 206, 233 ; tariff on, declared 
unconstitutional, 232 ; internal, in 
relation to banking, 279 ; treaties 
with Muscat and Siam, 455 ; with 
Cuba and Puerto Rico, 288 ; U. 
S. and Belgium, 290 ; with Island 
of St. Croix, 290 ; relation of 
consular service to, 293 ; treaty 
between Belgium and U. S., 363- 
364 ; between U. S. and Ven- 
ezuela, importance of, 365 ; 
French aggressions lipon Ameri- 
can, 366 ; tariff negotiations 
between U. S. and France, 368, 
369 ; improvements in harbors, 
etc., entailed by increase in, 397 ; 
U. S. with Portugal, 401 ; with 
Cuba, 402 ; with Holland and Bel- 
gium, 403-404 ; policies for gen- 
eral benefit, 419 ; interdiction of 
French as retaliatory measure, 
448; with West Indies, protec- 
tion by armored vessels, 481. 
See also. Spoliation claims ; Tar- 
iff. 

Commissioner of General Land Of- 
fice, report of, cited, 119. 

Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
measures for protection of Indi- 
ans, 480. 

Commissioners of Loans, offices not 
needed after extinction of public 
debt, 421. 

Committee of Ways and Means, 
safety of public deposits, 299. 
See also, Deposits, Public. 

Companies. See Corporations. 

Congress, knowledge of Jackson's 
nullification views 17; sanction 
for nullification proclamation, 20 ; 
should prevent smuggling, 51 ; 
legislation on imprisonment for 
debt, 52 ; legislation on punish- 
ment for fraud, 53 ; act to reduce 
and fix military establishment, 
54 ; opens ports to British ves- 
sels, 87 ; and internal improve- 



ments, 97, 105, 192. 393-396; and 
Indian affairs, 114, 126-128, 130, 
385; support of navy, 119; atti- 
tude toward District of Columbia, 
122, 166, 173; power to establish 
banks, 165, 166, 168; exclusive 
right to declare war, 130-131 ; 
powers of, in relation to monopo- 
lies, 167 ; in relation to currency, 
169-170; large appropriations re- 
sulting in increased expenditure, 
184-185 ; notification as to viola- 
tion of revenue laws, 189; atti- 
tude toward South Carolina's op- 
position, 201 ; tariff legislation 
annulled by South Carolina, 204 ; 
South Carolina's aggressions on, 
212; tariff legislation, 218; tariff 
legislation in Cuba and Puerto 
Rico, 362, 402 ; power toward 
proposing amendments, 213; leg- 
islative powers, 222 ; and nullifi- 
cation proclamation, 232, 235, 
242, 243 ; relations to States, Ar- 
ticles of Confederation, 237 ; 
powers, 242, 243, 327 ; powers 
to raise revenue, 240, 241 ; 
limitation of power in calling 
conventions, 249 ; attitude toward 
repeal of revenue laws, 249 ; man- 
agement of Bank of the United 
States, 265, 267 ; relations with 
Bank of the United States, 421- 
422, 473, 474-475, 510; legislation 
as to French payments, 283-284, 
286 ; legislation as to duties on 
tonnage of Spanish ships, 287, 
288 ; legislation as to revenue 
system, 295 ; should abstain from 
unnecessary appropriations, 296 ; 
on safety of public deposits, 299 ; 
provisions for public deposits, 
344, 383, 426-428; instructions as 
to removal of public deposits, 
352-355 ; and disposal of public 
lands, 307, 311, 312, 354; reduc- 
tion in price of public lands, 322 ; 
resolutions as to ratification of 
Articles of Confederation, 308- 
309 ; urges States to cede to gov- 
ernment, 310; violation of origi- 
nal pledge as to State land pay- 
ments, 317; appropriation of U. 
S. moneys, 318; reductions in 
revenue by, causing surplt^s in 
Treasury, 319; local taxation 
should not be vested in, 321 ; 
powers of removal, 340, 341, 342; 
powers of appointment, 342, 344 ; 
relations to executive, 343 ; ap- 
propriations. 380, 387 ; and 
French spoliation claims, 373- 
375. 376, 406-411. 413, 414; ex- 
ception to president's messages. 



Index 



525 



414-415; provisions for increase 
of navy, 388 ; establishment of 
circuit courts, 390 ; without pow- 
er to construct roads within 
State limits under Constitution, 
395 ; acts improving condition of 
army, 429 ; legislation for secur- 
ing use of railroads to Post Office 
department, 438 ; suppression of 
anti-slavery feeling, 439 ; con- 
stitutional amendment urged, 440, 
442, 469 ; acknowledgment of in- 
dependence of Texas, 487, 489 ; 
not empowered to establish Bank 
of the United States, 510; Jour- 
nals: Maryland's objection to 
Articles of Confederation, 307 ; 
validity of legislation, 499 ; legis- 
lation as to compensation for vol- 
unteers, 478; of 1789, status of 
Secretary of Treasury, 342 ; dis- 
tribution of surplus revenue, see 
Revenue, Surplus. 

Connecticut, cessions of public 
lands, 311 ; tabular statistics for 
proposed distribution of surplus 
revenue, 486. 

Constitution, amendment proposed 
with regard to appropriations, 77, 
79, 80 ; amendment as to internal 
improvements, 193, 194; amend- 
ment proposed with regard to 
presidential elections, 42-44, 49, 
107-110, 151, 304, 440, 484; 
amendment as to pension law, 55 ; 
amendment for disposition of 
surplus revenue, 68, 213, 465; 
provisions as to confederacies, 
57 ; as to disposal of public lands, 
311, 317; attitude of government 
toward internal improvements, 
391-394; appropriations for in- 
ternal improvements, 396 ; Bank 
of the United States, 510; cus- 
tody of public money, 343, 344 '. 
provisions as to currency, 280, 
469, 505 ; accumulation and dis- 
tribution of revenue, 241-244, 
320; revenue laws, 238; right of 
delegates to Congress to raise 
revenue, 240 ; proposed legisla- 
tion for distribution of proceeds 
from public lands opposed to, 
323 ; president charged with viola- 
tion of, 325, 326, 332, 334, 338, 356, 
358; president's responsibilities 
under, 328-329 ; impeachment un- 
der, 332-337 ; powers of president, 

339. 347; of Senate, 329. 33o ; 
power to recognize new State, 
489 ; powers of appointment, 339- 

340, 341, 342, 344; powers of re- 
moval, 351 ; definition of powers, 
327, 330 ; powers overstepped by 



government, 502 ; value of, 239, 
496, 500 ; violated by nullification 
act, 235, 244 ; U. S. government 
under, 245; position of States un- 
der, 247, 248 ; equality of taxa- 
tion, 461. 

Consular system, revision recom- 
mended, 146, 293 ; appointimnt 
of consul to Buenos Ayres, 364, 
366. 

Contraband of war, Spanish accu- 
sations of American trade in, 140. 

Convention of 1783, monetary pro- 
visions, 466. 

Convention of states, request for, 
by South Carolina, 250. 

Copyright, growth of laws, 167. 

Corporations, connection with in- 
ternal improvements, 73 ; govern- 
ment as stockholder in, 96, 97, 
189; evil effects on financial con- 
ditions, 423-424 ; carriage of U. 
S. mails on railroads constructed 
by, 438 ; power of Congress to 
grant charters to, forbidden, 466 ; 
desire of high tariff by, 504 ; 
power over agricultural laboring 
and mechanical classes, 511. 

Corruption, possibilities of, in pres- 
idential elections, 43-44. See 
also. Elections. 

Cotton, forbidden cargo to Ameri- 
can vessels, 85 ; reductions on, 
116, 138; French tariff on Ameri- 
can, 369- 

Courts of law, of U. S., in rela- 
tion to revenue laws, 226 ; of 
South Carolina, as opposed to 
U. S., 208 ; of U. S., jurisdiction, 
224; judgment as to seizures, 
225 ; redress for sufferers 
through disobedience to nullifi- 
cation ordinances, 229 ; powers 
under the Constitution, 327. 
Sec also, Circuit courts; District 
courts; State courts. 

Crawford, — Secretary of Treas- 
ury, 266. 

Credit system, prevention of ex- 
tension, 471. 

Creek Indians, 58; arrangements 
for removal, 385; condition (8th 
annual message), 451 ; war with, 

475-477- . . 

Cuba, duties on American vessels in 
ports, 288, 362; regulation of U. 
S. commerce, 402. 

Cumberland road, construction of, 
69-70; legislation on, 71; com- 
plication, in connection with, 70; 
appropriation for, 304. 

Currency. Sec Banks and Bank- 
ing; Money. 

Customs. Sec Tariff. 



526 



Index 



Debt of Post Office department, pay- 
ment, 437. 

Debt, Public, reduction of, 48 ; so- 
cial and moral effects, 52 ; pay- 
ment, 74, 76, 98, 102, 107, us, 
118, 149, 177, 185, 190, 293, 294, 
296, 376, 399. 418, 419. 504; pub- 
lic funds as payment, 99 ; effect 
of appropriation on, 81 ; state of, 
168; relation to tariff, 188, 377; 
relation to revenue, 221, 465; 
public deposit to be asked for, 
262 ; in relation to Bank of the 
United States, 269, 270 ; proceeds 
of public lands to go to pay- 
ment of, 313, 315; reduction in 
price of public lands on payment 
of, 322 ; postponement of payment 
through interference of the Bank 
of the United States, 378 ; need 
of Sinking Fund and Commis- 
sioners of Loans offices abolished 
by extinction of, 421. 

Debtors, Attorney-General's duties 
toward, 122; lenient policy to- 
ward, 150. 

Decatur, Commodore, recapture of 
Philadelphia, 64. 

Defense. See Fortifications. 

Delaware, taxation in relation to 
revenue, 461 ; tabular statistics 
for proposed distribution of sur- 
plus revenue, 486. 

Denmark, relations with U. S., 40, 
139, 289-290, 362, 402, 452; in- 
demnity claims, 89-90, 135, 181. 

Deposits, Public, in state banks, 
■279. 383, 455-456 ; removal from 
Bank of United States, 277, 2S2, 
298, 299, 300, 345, 346, 381, 427, 
472 ; not removed from Bank of 
United States by Secretary of 
Treasury, 339 ; president's sanc- 
tion for transfer from Bank of 
United States, 347, 348 ; arrange- 
ments to place them in safe insti- 
tutions by newly appointed Secre- 
tary of Treasury, 348 ; resolu- 
tions of Maine on removal from 
Bank of United States, 351-352; 
resolutions of New Jersey, 352- 
354; resolutions of Ohio, 354- 
355 ; legislation on transfer of, 
455-456, 458, 459- 460, 461. 

Despotism in South Carolina, 26. 

District courts, dist'-ibution of, 152; 
in relation to circuit courts, 197. 
See also, Circuit courts ; Courts 
of law. 

District of Columbia, government, 
133; conditions, 151-152, 165; 
powers of Congress over, 166, 
173; lack of attention from Con- 
gress, 122-123 ; laws for punish- 



ment of fraud, 197 ; pecuniary de- 
pression, 442 ; need of uniformity 
in laws, 484. 

Documents of French spoliation 
claims, 285. 

Dodge, Col., in action against the 
Indians, 384. 

Drayton, Col., 19, 25. 

Duty. See Tariff. 

East, The, financial conditions 
eased by reductions in tariff, 324. 

East Indies, commerce with, 143. 

Eastern States, embargo and non- 
intercourse law, 236. 

Ecuador, relations with U. S., 291 ; 
reunion with New Granada and 
Venezuela, 365 ; acknowledgment 
of independence by U. S., 490. 

Education, Indian, plans for, 434. 

Elections, reform, 33 ; of president 
and vice-president by direct popu- 
lar vote, 42-44, 82, 107-110, 151, 
197, 304, 390-391. 440, 441. 451. 
484 ; popular, basis of U. S. gov- 
ernment, 244 ; electoral vote for 
president (tabular statistics) , 486 ; 
government's voice in State, 96 ; 
interference of Bank of the Uni- 
ted States in, 268, 297-298, 383 ; 
franchise in relation to bank con- 
trol, 281. 

Embargo and non-intercourse law 
in Eastern States, 236. 

Emigration of Indians, 59 ; public 
lands open to, 471. See also, 
Indians. 

Engineer Corps, enlargement to cor- 
respond with increasing duties, 
429-430, 479 ; change in organiza- 
tion advised, 385. 

England, relations with U. S., 36- 
37. 137-138, 179-180; commerce 
with, 82,84, 8s, 86, 87, 92; trade 
between colonies and U. S., 136; 
indemnity claims, 135 ; northeast- 
ern boundary question, 90, 136- 
137, 269, 282-283, 361, 399. 400- 
401, 4S2 ; negotiations for light- 
houses in Bahamas, 283. 

Excise law in Pennsylvania, 236. 

Executive Department, custody of 
public money, 344 ; Senate as- 
sumes right to interfere with, ex- 
ecutive power, 349. 350. 

Expenditures. See Finances. 

Expunging resolution, protest on 
the, 32S-360. 

Farewell Address, Jackson's, 14, 

493-515- 
Falkland Islands, hostilities from 

Buenos Ayres at, 145, 293. 
Federalist historians, place of, 11. 



I 



Index 



S^7 



Finances conditions of, 48, 148-149, 
177, 184, 293-295, 376-378, 418- 
428, 455-475 ; conditions with 
abolishment of Bank of the Uni- 
ted States, 266 ; public funds for 
public debt, 99 ; for internal im- 
provements, 10 1 ; receipts in 
Treasury, 118-119; disposition of 
public funds, 177; protection of 
public moneys against Bank of 
the United States, 281 ; public 
revenue and expenditure, 282. 
See also, Bank of the United 
States ; Banks and banking ; Debt, 
Public ; Money ; Treasury. 

Fisheries, protection of Pacific, 40, 
144 ; abuses in allowances for 
fishing bounties, 119; treaty with 
Chili, 183 ; Falkland Islands, 293. 

Fitch, Augustus, letter, 29. 

Florida archives captured by Spain, 
180, 288-289, 362, 402; purchase 
of, 312, 315 ; war with Seminoles, 
475-476 ; indemnification for con- 
fiscated property, 479. 

Flour, reduction in duties on, 144. 

Foreign Affairs Department. See 
State Department. 

Foreign relations, Jackson's foreign 
policy, 13 ; should receive more 
attention, 63 ; condition, Jackson's 
ist annual message, 36-42; 2d an- 
nual message, 83-93 ; 3rd annual 
message, 133-146; 4th annual 
message, 178-184; 5th annual 
message, 282-293 ; 6th annual 
message, 361-376; 7th annual 
message, 399-404 ; 8th annual 
message. 451-452; cordiality 
(farewell address), 495 ; policy 
(farewell address), 513. 

Foreign stockholders in Bank of 
the United States, 154, 157, I59. 
160, 161, 162, 167. 

Forsythe, Maj., speaks in Senate, 
21. 

Fortifications. Secretary of War's 
report cited, 119; provisions for, 
186; at exposed points, 300; fail- 
ure to pass bill for appropriations 
for, 430 ; on seaboard, appropria- 
tions for, 479 ; increase needed, 

514- 

Fox Indians, aggressions, 194, 301. 

France, Jackson's relations with, 
13; relations with U. S., 36-38, 
283, 366-376, 451; expressions of 
friendship, 83 ; spoliation claims, 
82, 90-91, 133, 13s, 138. 284-286, 
361, 367-369, 372-375. 399. 405. 
451 ; Bank of the United States 
purchaser of bill drawn on, 272 ; 
U. S. minister plenipotentiary to, 
286 ; possibility of hostile rela- 



tions with, 375-376 ; seizure of 
public stock to meet payments on 
spoliation claims, 379 ; U. S. 
shows consideration toward, in 
not pressing claims, 406 ; negotia- 
tions with Congress concerning 
spoliation claims, 407-409, 410; 
legislation as to spoliation claims, 
412, 413; recall of minister from 
Washington and other hostilities 
in French attitude, 411 ; criticism 
of president's message, 414-416; 
message on affairs with, 443-450 ; 
diplomatic relations resumed, 
452 ; possession of Algiers affects 
American relations, 364 ; Ameri- 
can tariff on wines of, 368; tariff 
on American cotton, 369. 

Franking privilege, question of re- 
vision of laws relating to, 389. 

Fraud, on the Treasury, 53 ; law 
for punishment of, 197 ; in pen- 
sion claims, 386-387. 

Frontier warfare. See Indians. 

Fuel, duty on, 473. 

Funds, Public. See Finances. 

Gaines, Gen., occupation of Nacog- 
doches, 477. 

General Land Office. See Land Of- 
fice, General. 

Georgetown (S. C), port of en- 
try, 223. 

Georgia, encouragement to nullifi- 
cation, 2^ ; attempt of Indians to 
maintain independent govern- 
ment in, 57-58; Indian lands in, 
82, 114; jurisdiction over Indian 
lands, 126; Indian affairs, 131, 
133. 195 ; letter from governor 
cited, 132; removal of Cherokee 
Indians, 147; land grants, 190, 
312; profits from cession of land, 
315; establishment of branch 
mints, 422 ; indemnification for 
confiscated property, 479 ; tabular 
statistics for proposed distribu- 
tion of surplus revenue, 486. 

Germany, commerce with, 142. 

Ghent, Treaty of, 37, 136. 

Gold (money), value of legislation 
regulating, 422 ; circulating me- 
dium for currency, 426, 46S, 505, 
513; superseded by paper for gen- 
eral currency, 467 ; increased cir- 
culation by measure re(|uiring 
specie payments for public lands, 
471. See also, Precious metals. 

Government, aid to prexent nullifi- 
cation, 18; four years limit to of- 
fice holding, 45 ; as stockholder 
in corporations, 95, 97; relations 
with Bank of the United States. 
154-176, 273, 276; banking rcla- 



528 



Ind 



ex 



tions, 279 ; systematization of ex- 
penditures, 296 ; cession of pub- 
lic lands, 168, 307, 310, 314; pow- 
ers involved in questions of public 
lands, 190; control of internal 
improvements, 192-193 ; federal, 
in relation to State, loo-ioi, 106, 
215-220, 258-260; in relation to 
Indian affairs, 125-132; powers 
of, 177; obligations of South 
Carolina to, 222 ; power over pub- 
lic moneys to be clearly defiiied, 
428. 

Governor's powers in South Caro- 
lina, 210. 

Graham, J., revolutionary patriot, 
21. 

Great Lakes, commerce, 136; im- 
provements in harbors, 397. 

Grundy, , resolutions, 22. 

Gulf of Florida, lighthouses, 283. 

Habeas Corpus act in South Caro- 
lina, 209. 

Hamilton, Gov., nullification speech, 
29 ; message to South Carolina 
legislature, 211. 

Harbors, proposed bill for improve- 
ment, 93, 94 ; appropriations for, 
394, 396 ; improvements defrayed 
by Congress, 396-397. 43i- 

Harrison, , 21. 

Havana, cholera at, 289 ; orders to 
the agent of the U. S. at, in re- 
gard to Florida archives, 362. 

Hayne, Gov., inaugural address, 211. 

Herndon, William H., " Life of 
Lincoln " cited, 232. 

Highways, construction of, 49, 68. 

Holland, indemnity claims, 135, 
452 ; Bank of United States nego- 
tiations with, 269 ; U. S. relations 
with, 361, 399, 403. 

House of Representatives, connec- 
tion with presidential election, 
43-44, 244-245, 441 ; veto message 
to, 66-81; obligations of, 163; 
committee of investigation in re- 
lation to Bank of United States 
legislation, 174; on safety of de- 
posits, 270-272, 299 ; accusatory 
power vested in, in cases of im- 
peachment, 327, 330, 331, 333, 
335 ; practical impeachment of 
Pres. Jackson originated in Sen- 
ate instead of, 332 ; proceedings 
in case of charges against presi- 
dent, 334, 336 ; authority for 
president's power of removal, 
341 ; negotiation for lighthouses 
in Bahamas, 2^3 ; Jackson's mes- 
sage to (1830), cited, 318; legis- 
lative power under the Constitu- 
tion, 327 ; insist on execution of 



French treaty of 1831, 449; reso- 
lution on inquiry as to Indian af- 
fairs, 477 ; Committee on Com- 
merce, questions of salaries re- 
ferred to, 484 ; resolution on ac- 
knowledgment of the independ- 
ence of Texas, 489. 

Illinois district court, 152, 197; In- 
dian occupancy, 114; militia fight 
Indians, 194; payment on public 
lands, 316; tabular statistics for 
proposed distribution of surplus 
revenue, 486. 

Impeachment, powers of, under the 
Constitution, 330, 333-336; accu- 
satory power vested in House of 
Representatives, 327 ; Senate in 
relation to, 329, 332 ; rules for, 
331. 

Importation. See Commerce ; Tar- 
iff._ 

Imprisonment for debt, 52; for dis- 
obeying nullification ordinance, 
209. 

Inaugural Address, Jackson's first, 
31-34; second, 257-260. 

Indemnity, to Indians, 111-112; 
proposed, for sufferers in Indian 
hostilities, 479 ; for infringement 
of rights by foreign nations, 135; 
claims from Brazil, 145. See 
also, Spoliation claims. 

Indiana district courts, 152, 197; 
Indian occupancy, 114; Indians 
unprepared to remove to western 
reservations, 433 ; payment on 
public lands, 316; tabular statis- 
tics for proposed distribution of 
surplus revenue, 486. 

Indians, treatment of, 33 ; condi- 
tions, 56, 119, 125-132, 177, 282, 
385 ; attempts at independence, 
57-58; removal to reservations, 
59, 82, 110-113, 115, 147-148, 186, 
195, 301, 385-386, 399, 433, 495; 
removal of, duties of army, 431 ; 
removal at expense of govern- 
ment, 434 ; in South Carolina, 
127; compacts as to public lands, 
191 ; relations with, 300-301 ; pay- 
ments for titles to land, 315; 
hostilities with, 194, 384; ap- 
propriation for civilization of, 
387 ; protective policies to- 
ward, 435 ; protection from de- 
predations in Texas, 453-454; 
proposed relief to sufferers from 
depredations by, 479 ; plans for 
improvement in western reserva- 
tions, 480. See also, Cherokee 
Indians; Chickasaw Indians; 
Choctaw Indians ; Creek In- 



Index 



529 



dians ; Seminole Indians ; Sen- 
eca Indians. 

Infantry, Marine corps to be 
merged in, 61. 

Inland navigation. See Navigation, 
Inland. 

Internal affairs, legislation of, 50. 

Internal improvements, appropria- 
tions for, 49, 320, 393-398; by 
national and state government, 
82; effect on commerce, 104; ac- 
tion of federal government to- 
ward, 391-392 ; expenditures for, 
loi ; extension of, 133 ; in rela- 
tion to government's funds, 192- 
193 ; improvident legislation, 97 ; 
in relation to excessive tariff, 
503; ist inaugural address, 32-33 ; 
4th annual message, 177; 6th an- 
nual message, 361 ; 7th annual 
message, 399 ; Jackson's veto 
message, 66-81 ; powers of Con- 
gress in relation to, 97 ; necessity 
of established attitude toward, 
100; surplus revenue, 102; legis- 
lation, 107 ; proceeds from public 
lands as appropriations for, 319; 
unconstitutional powers of gov- 
ernment in appropriation of pub- 
lic revenue for, 464-465 ; people's 
decision that they shall not be fi- 
nanced by government, 504. 

Jackson, Andrew, popularity, 11 ; 
condemnation, 12; creed, preser- 
vation of the Union, 14; charac- 
ter, 16; emotions displayed in 
writings, 17; responsibility of 
president toward Indians, 125 ; 
personal attitude toward nullifi- 
cation, 232 ; support from Maine, 
in removal of public deposits, 
351 ; support from New Jersey, 
352-354; support from Ohio, 354; 
defense of personal character 
against arraignment by Senate, 
358-360. 

Jefferson ,Thomas, internal improve- 
ments in his administration, 69 ; 
on tariff, cited, 116. 

Jesup, Gen., operations against the 
Seminoles, 476. 

Judicial system of U. S., 62-63 > 
Federal (4th annual message), 
177; imperfection, 197; extension 
of, 152. See also. Circuit courts; 
Courts of law ; District courts. 

Kentucky, circuit courts in, 197 ; 
tabular statistics for proposed dis- 
tribution of surplus revenue, 486. 

Labor, prosperity, 133; effects of 
excessive bank issues, 468 ; price, 



in relation to price of products. 
469 ; effects of excessive tariff, 
503 ; of paper currency, 506. 

Land Office, General, required im- 
provements, 420-421. 

Lands, Public, sales of, 47, 119; 
sale to settlers, 191., 420, 471 ; 
sale in relation to extension of 
bank credits, 470 ; revenue from, 
149. 293, 315, 316, 319, 460; price, 
117. 185, 322, 324, 469; govern- 
ment's right of purchase, 168; 
taxation, 171 ; disposition of, 190, 
314, 315; decrease of value in 
South Carolina, 251 ; grants from 
Congress, 305, 306 ; veto message, 
305-324 ; waste lands to be used 
for common benefit of U. S., 309 ; 
cession of State claims, 311, 312; 
U. S. title to, 312; legislation as 
to State payments, 316-317; Con- 
gress oversteps authority in dis- 
posal of, 317-318; made a per- 
petual charge upon the Treasury 
by proposed legislation, 320 ; pro- 
portion of proceeds from sale of, 
to go to State, 322 ; should cease 
to be source of revenue, 323 ; of- 
ficers in charge of, appointed by 
president, 343 ; Ohio legislation 
on, 354-355 ; receipts in Treasury 
from, 455 ; payment to be made 
in specie, 470 ; open to emigra- 
tion, 471 ; speculations due to 
paper currency, 506; Indian title 
to, 114, 125; Indian titles to, ex- 
tinguished, 147-148; intrusion 
upon Indian lands, 131. 

Law, Patent. See Patents. 

Law of copyright. See Copyright. 

Leavenworth, Gen., death, 384. 

Legislation on nullification, 27 ; on 
tariff, 46-47, 218, 225-227; in 
South Carolina, with regard to 
tariff, 209, 229-230 ; of internal 
affairs, 50 ; punishment for fraud, 
53. 197; on military affairs. 54; 
on pensions, 55-56; for appropri- 
ations for Cumberland Road, 70 ; 
on commerce, 85 ; presidential 
disapproval, 93 ; improvidence in 
relation to internal improvements, 
97 ; for internal improvements, 
105, 396 ; as to Indian lands, 1 14 ; 
on Indian affairs, 125, 385; re- 
forms in, necessary for District 
of Columbia, 123; recommenda- 
tion for revision of consular 
laws, 146; on coinage and cur- 
rency, 169-170, 422, 428, 469; on 
banking, 170, 475; as to petition- 
ing State and circuit courts, 229 ; 
in relation to Bank of the United 
States, 262, 351-355. 474-475; for 



53° 



Index 



deposit of public money, 34S. 
455-456, 458, 459, 460; as to 
French claims, 283-284, 370-372, 
375 ; as to duties on tonnage of 
Spanish ships, 287 ; as to revenue 
system, 295 ; as to public lands, 
305-312; northwest ordinance 
(1787), 313; as to payment on 
State cessions of public land, 
316; on president's powers of re- 
moval, 341 ; as to duties of Sec- 
retary of Treasury, 343 ; as to 
custody of public property, 344 ; 
revision of laws relating to frank- 
ing privilege, 389 ; for navigation 
improvements, 396-398 ; as to 
duties on Dutch and Belgian ship- 
ping, 403-404 ; in relation to Post 
Office, 438, 439, 483 ; revision of 
laws for District of Columbia, 
442 ; proposed, as to compensa- 
tion for volunteers, 478 ; pro- 
posed in relation to General Land 
Office, 421. 

Leigh, mission of, 2T. 

Levy, Col., 21. 

Lighthouses, building of, 93, 94 ; for 
Bahamas and Gulf of Florida, 
283 ; appropriations for, 393, 394 ; 
improvements defrayed by gov- 
ernment, 396-397. 

Lincoln, Abraham, Gettysburg ad- 
dress cited, 17; 2d inaugural ad- 
dress cited, 18. 

Liquor traffic, prohibited with Indi- 
ans, 435. 

Livingston, Edward, Anti-nullifi- 
cation proclamation, 232. 

Loans, extended by Bank of the 
United States, 262, 269 ; of State 
banks to be extended, 277 ; cor- 
rupt, of Bank of the United 
States, 378. See also Banks and 
banking. 

Louisiana, purchase of, 69, 312, 315 ; 
commercial provisions connected 
with session of, 139; district 
courts, 152, 197; payment on pub- 
lic lands, 316; abandonment of 
French claims with regard to 
treaty of cession, 368 ; establish- 
ment of branch mints, 422 ; tabu- 
lar statistics for proposed distri- 
bution of surplus revenue, 486. 

Louisville (Ky.), transfer of pub- 
lic deposits to State banks, 347. 

Louisville and Portland Canal Com- 
pany, subscription for slock in, 
93, 97- 



McCulloch, 
McDuffie, - 
29. 



-, 7/.V. Maryland, 170. 
nullification leader, 



Machinery for ship building, 60 ; ef- 



fects of improvements on prices, 
117. 

McLane, , U. S. relations with 

England, 86. 

Madison, James, message to Con- 
gress cited, 63 ; veto message 
cited, 66 ; internal improvements 
in his administration, 70 ; on tar- 
iff, cited, 116. 

Mails, U. S. See Post Office. 

Maine, connection with Northeast- 
ern boundary dispute, 137; sena- 
tor from, supports resolutions 
against president, 351 ; resolu- 
tions on removal of public depos- 
its from Bank of The United 
States, 351-352; tabular statistics 
for proposed distribution of sur- 
plus revenue, 486. 

Manufactures, conditions of, 45-46, 
133; effects of tariff, 46; encour- 
agement of domestic, 80-81 ; low 
prices result of tariff, 116 ; domes- 
tic, 177; encouragement of do- 
mestic, 187; assertion that rev- 
enue laws are intended for pro- 
tection of, 238 ; power of Con- 
gress over French manufacturing 
interests, 373 ; prosperity, 7th an- 
nual message, 400 ; policies for 
general benefit, 419; result of dis- 
crimination as to tariff, 461 ; dan- 
ger in reduction of tariff, 465. 

Marine corps, disposition of, 61 ; ac- 
tive in operations against Semi- 
noles and Creeks, 475. 

Marine law, treaty between U. S. 
and Belgium, 364. 

Maryland, outgrown laws in, 123; 
District of Columbia partly sub- 
ject to laws of, 152; case of Mc- 
Culloch against, 170; in relation 
to Articles of Confederation, 306- 
310; tabular statistics for pro- 
posed distribution of surplus rev- 
enue, 486. 

Mason, Col., 21. 

Massachusetts, land grants to gov- 
ernment, 190, 311; tabular statis- 
tics for proposed distribution of 
surplus revenue, 486. 

Mays\ ille, Washington, Paris and 
Lexington Turnpike Road Com- 
pany, veto message, 66-81 ; sub- 
scription to, 97, 318, 319. 394; ex- 
ecutive approval withheld. 395. 

Mechanical arts, taught to Indians, 

434- . ^ , 

Mediterranean Sea, policy of keep- 
ing U. S. force in, 40. 
Merchandise, regulations for, no; 
officers in charge of, appointed by 
president, 343. 
Merchants, indemnity for foreign 



J 



Index 



531 



spoliation, 140-141 ; of New 
York, United States Banks' af- 
fairs, 269. See also Spoliation 
claims. 

Messages to Congress, Jackson's ist 
annual, 34-65; 2d annual, 82-124; 
3d annual, 133-153; 4th annual, 
177-199; Sth annual, 282-304; 6th 
annual, 360-398 ; 7th annual, 399- 
442; 8th annual, 451-486; veto — 
Maysville Turnpike road, 66-81 ; 
veto — public lands, 305-324 ; af- 
fairs with France, 443-450 ; on 
Texas and Mexico, 487-492 ; cita- 
tions, 21, 22; explanation of mes- 
sage of 1834 demanded by France, 
413; French criticisms, 414, 415. 

Metals, precious, as basis for cur- 
rency, 469. See also Gold (mon- 
ey) ; Silver (money). 

Mexico, relations with U. S., 40-42 ; 
143-144, 182, 365, 399, 451 ; treaty 
of commerce and navigation, 90 ; 
boundary dispute, 92-93, 292,454; 
question of territorial integrity, 
404; struggle with Texas, 453- 
454; U. S. troops in, 477-478; 
message on Texas and, 487-492 ; 
U. S. neutrality, 490. 

Michigan, tabular statistics for pro- 
posed distribution of surplus rev- 
enue, 486. 

Military Academy. See West Point. 

Military defense in South Carolina, 
210, 213, 230, 250. 

Military education, satisfactory re- 
sults of system, 430. See also 
West Point Military Academy. 

Military posts, establishment in In- 
dian country, 480. 

Military supplies, officers in charge 
of, appointed by president, 343. 

Militia, importance in defense, 33 ; 
necessity for maintaining, 54 ; in- 
sufficient organization, 194-195, 
431-432, 478; of Illinois, against 
Indians, 194; South Carolina to 
be revised, 208, 210; appropria- 
tion for arms and equipment, 387. 

Mint of the United States, work on 
gold coinage, 383 ; establishment 
of branches in Georgia, North 
Carolina and Louisiana, 422 ; na- 
tional bank, a substitute for, 467. 
See also Banks and banking; 
Money. 

Mississippi, Indian affairs, no, 114. 
131, 147 ; district courts, 152, 197 ; 
banking, 160; payment on public 
lands, 316; tabular statistics for 
proposed distribution of surplus 
revenue, 486. 

Missouri, Indian occupancy, 114; 
district courts, 152, 197 ; banking, 



160; payment on public lands, 
316; tabular statistics for pro- 
posed distribution of surplus rev- 
enue, 486. 

Mobile (Ala.) branch bank, 160. 

Molasses, forbidden cargo to Amer- 
ican vessels, 85. 

Money, Bank of the United States 
and state banks, 124; constitu- 
tional provisions for currency, 
170, 466; presidential power over, 
264; control should not be sub- 
ject to political power, 280 ; cus- 
tody of public, to be entrusted to 
executive department, 343 ; gold 
coinage sufficient to supply need 
of general paper currency, 383 ; 
plans for sound currency, 423- 
424 ; president's Sth annual mes- 
sage, 451 ; currency system in re- 
lation to sales of public lands, 
470-471. See also Banks and 
banking ; Deposits, Public ; Gold 
(money); Paper money; Silver 
(money). 

Monopoly, militates against system 
of sound currency, 423-424 ; re- 
sult of paper money system, 512, 

513. 
Monroe, James, veto message cited, 

66 ; action as to Cumberland Road 

bill, 71 ; on tariff, cited, 116. 
Morocco, treaty with, 364, 455. 
Muscat, commercial treaty with, 

455- 

Nacogdoches (Mex.), U. S. troops 
in, 454. 477- 

Naples, indemnity claims, 135, 140, 
181 ; commercial intercourse with 
U. S., 452- ■ 

Natchez (Miss.), branch bank, 160. 

National bank, proposition for es- 
tablishment, 64. See also Bank 
of the United States ; Banks and 
banking. 

Navigation, of Black Sea, 39, 182; 
improvement of inland, 49, 68, 
70 ; in colonial parts of Great 
Britain, 84-87 ; Mexican treaty, 
90 ; with Austria, 93 ; protection 
of, by government, 93 ; improve- 
ment, 94, 134, 431 ; prosperous 
condition, 178; treaty with Rus- 
sia, 286 ; Spanish and American 
tonnage duties, 287 ; duties in 
Cuba and Puerto Rico on Ameri- 
can, 362 ; improvement of Wa- 
bash River, 391, 39« ; appropria- 
tions for improvements in, .?03 ; 
appropriations for improveiiunts 
as distinguished from appropria- 
tions for other internal improve- 
ments, 396; improvements dc- 



532 



Index 



frayed by government, 396-397. 
See also Commerce ; Steam 
navigation. 

Navy, need for support, 54 ; condi- 
tion, 59-61, 1 19-120, 196-197, 302, 
481 ; establishment of navy-yards, 
60 ; application of surplus reven- 
ue to improvements in navy-yards, 
418; protects Pacific fisheries and 
commerce, 144; provisions for in- 
crease, 388, 449. 481, 514; erec- 
tion of dry dock and construction 
of steam batteries, 388 ; discon- 
tinuance of extra allowances and 
substitution of fixed salaries, 428 ; 
inadequate to protection of com- 
merce, 436. 

Navy, Secretary of. See Secretary 
of Navy. 

Navy-board, substitution of bu- 
reaus, 61 ; responsibilities, 484. 

Netherlands, King of, settlement of 
Northeastern boundary, 137. 

Neutral ports, transhipments at, 86. 

Neutral rights, infringements, 135; 
observation of, 178. See also 
Commerce ; Navigation. 

New England, Indians in, 128. 

New Granada, relations with U. S., 
183, 291, 404; reunion with Vene- 
zuela and Ecuador, 365 ; ac- 
knowledgment of independence by 
U. S., 490. 

New Hampshire, tabular statistics 
for proposed distribution of sur- 
plus revenue, 486. 

New Jersey, legislation on land 
grants, 306 ; resolution on remov- 
al of public deposits from Bank 
of the United States, 352-354 ; 
senators from, support resolutions 
against president, 351 ; tabular 
statistics for proposed distribu- 
tion of surplus revenue, 486. 

New York (City), Bank of the 
United States' negotiations, 269 ; 
payment of New York banks in 
London, 27Q ; import duties, 459. 

New York (State), attitude toward 
tariff, 24; Indians in, 128; land 
grants to government, 190 ; legis- 
lation on land claims, 307, 308 ; 
cessions of public lands, 310; tab- 
ular statistics' for proposed dis- 
tribution of surplus revenue, 486. 

Newfoundland, restrictions in U. S. 
commerce with, 84. 

Non-intercourse law in eastern 
States, embargo and, 236. 

North Carolina, Indian settlements 
in, 129; land grants to govern- 
ment, 190, 311; profits from ces- 
sion of land, 315 ; establishment 
of branch mints, 422 ; tabular 



statistics for proposed distribu- 
tion of surplus revenue, 486. 

North, The, growth of sectional 
feeling, 497. 

Northeastern boundary, arbitration, 
90, 282-283, 361, 399, 400-401, 
452 ; referred to the King of the 
Netherlands, 136-137; special 
message to Senate, 179-180. 

Northwest ordinance. See Ordi- 
nance of 1787. 

Nullification, attitude of Jackson, 
12-13; letters on, 16-29; Ordi- 
nance of, 22, 27, 29, 200 ; Jack- 
son's message on Ordinance of, 
200-231 ; Anti-nullification procla- 
mation, 14, 17, 232-256. 

Ohio, attitude toward tariff, 24 ; In- 
dians in, 114, 147, 433; circuit 
courts in, 197 ; payments on pub- 
lic lands, 316; senators from, sup- 
port resolutions against president, 
351 ; resolutions on removal of 
public deposits from Bank of the 
United States, 354-355 ; tabular 
statistics for proposed distribu- 
tion of surplus revenue, 486. 

Oliver, Robert, letter on nullifica- 
tion to, 17. 

Ordinance of Nullification. See 
Nullification. 

Ordinance of 1787 passed by the 
Congress of the Confederation, 

313- 
Ordnance corps, re-organization 

recommended, 479. See also 

Army. 
Oriental commerce. See Commerce. 

Pacific commerce. See Commerce. 

Pacific fisheries. See Fisheries. 

Panic of 1837, connection with act 
for removal of public deposits, 
261. 

Paper money in state banks, 124; 
need for check of excessive issue, 
422, 473 ; reform in system of 
currency, 426, 466, 468, 469, 506- 
513; suppression of bank bills be- 
low $20.00, 426 ; in relation to 
public revenue, 464 ; supersedes 
gold as general currency, 467, 
505 ; over issues in relation to 
sales of public land, 470. Sec 
also Banks and banking ; Money. 

Paris, minister plenipotentiary dis- 
patched to, 285-286. 

Parton, James, " Life of Jackson," 
cited, 30, 232. 

Patents, laws concerning, 151, 167. 

Penal laws, unsatisfactory, in Dis- 
trict of Columbia, 123. 

Penitentiary, completion of, 123. 



Index 



533 



Pennsylvania, attitude toward tariff, 
24 ; excise law, 236 ; act of incor- 
poration for Bank of the United 
States, 474 ; tabular statistics for 
proposed distribution of surplus 
revenue, 486. 
Pennsylvania Historical Society, 

Poinsett collection, 17. 
Pensions, proposed revision of laws, 
55 ; retention of, by Bank of the 
United States, 378 ; agents ap- 
pointed away from Bank of the 
United States, 381 ; exposures of 
frauds, 386. 
Peru, U. S. commercial relations 
with, 41, 183; disturbed condi- 
tions, 144; South American rela- 
tions, 293 ; U. S. cordial relations 
with, 404 ; U. S. representation 
in, 366. 
Philadelphia ( frigate) , recapture, 64. 
Pinckney, Castle, fortified, 18. 
Piracy, suppression of, 61 ; on 
American trading ships off Su- 
matra, 143, 184. 
Poinsett, Joel R., Jackson's letters 
to, 13; collection of letter on 
nullification, 17; in Mexico, 41- 
42. 
Poll tax, application of, 171. 
Popular vote. See Election. 
Population, U. S. (1829), 35". in- 
crease, 82 ; increase affects sup- 
ply and demand, 116; of South 
Carolina, 20. 
Ports of entry and delivery, increase 

in, 397. See also Tariff. 
Portugal, U. S. relations, 39, 93. 
363, 401 ; capture of American 
vessels, 141 ; spoliation claims, 
135, 181, 289, 452; French rela- 
tions with, cited, 375. 
Post Office, conditions of depart- 
ment, 62, 302, 388-390, 481-482; 
mail improvements, 121, 134; es- 
tablishment of new mail routes, 
302, 437 ; income from postage, 
303 ; provision of auditor and 
treasurer urged, 390; circulation 
of anti-slavery opinions through 
mails, 399, 438, 439; finances 
437 ; use of railroads constructed 
by private corporations, 438; mail 
contracts with railroad compa- 
nies, 482 ; interchange of mails 
between New York and foreign 
ports, 482-483 ; establishment of 
fire-proof building, 483- 
Postmaster-General, report cited, 62, 
119, 151, 197, 303, 349. 436, 438. 

481- . , , 

Precious metals, increased value, 
116-117; importation, to re-estab- 
lish finances, 379- 



President, election by popular vote, 
42-44, 82, I07-II0, 151, 197, 244. 
304, 390-391. 440, 441, 45'.. 4ti4; 
electoral votes (tabular siaiistics), 
486; obligations and powers, 163, 

325-327. 339, 340, 3.47 ; :iu- 
thorized to circulate inlormation 
as to Bank of the United Stales, 
274, 275 ; liabilities to punishment, 
328 ; powers of Senate in relation 
to action of, 329, 330 ; rules for 
impeachment, 330, 331 ; resolu- 
tions of Senate against, 331, 333- 

336. 355-358; charges against, 

337. 338; powers of appointment, 
342-344; powers of removal, 341, 
349 ; authority as to public depos- 
its, 345. 347. 348. 

President's Proclamation of Dec. 10, 
1832, 200. 

Press, influence of Bank of the 
United States upon, 272, 275, 2S1, 
298, 350- . . 

Prices reduced, 116-117; variation 
in relation to bank issues, 468, 
469. 

Prisoners, proposed legislation for 
safe-guarding, 229. 

Property, Public, custody of, func- 
tion of executive department, 343. 

Protection. See Tariff. 

Protest on expunging resolution, 
325-360. 

Prussia, U. S. relations, 142, 361, 
402, 452. 

Public debt. See Debt, Public. 

Public deposits. See Deposits, Pub- 
lic. 

.Public lands. Sec Lands, Public. 

Public revenue. Sec Revenue, Pub- 
lic. 

Puerto Rico, duties levied against 
U. S. navigation, 288, 362. 

Railroads, construction, 134; car- 
riage of U. S. mails, 438, 482. 

Real estate. State control over, 167. 

Removal, powers of, under the Con- 
stitution, 340, 341 ; of Secretary 
of Treasury, 348. 

Replevin, act of, 209, 224, 226. 227- 

Representation, basis for distribu- 
tion of surplus revenue, 102, 103; 
popular, basis of government. 244- 
245. 

Reprisals upon French property, 
proposed legislation for, 375 

Reservations. Sec Indians ; Lands. 

Resolution, Expunging, protest on 
the, 325-360. 

Revenue, disposition of surplus, 41. 
82, 92, 344. 345. 45'. 458-45'*; 
distribution of surplus, amonj? 
several Slates, 3-1. 486. 504-505; 



534 



Index 



surplus, to be returned to people, 
319-320; disposition of surplus, 
for internal improvement, 67-68, 
94; loss from long credits, 119; 
in relation to tariff and taxation, 
74, 103, 185, 293, 296, 377, 462, 
463-464, 465, 503 ; in relation to 
public lands, 119, 191, 315, 316, 
319, 323, 471 ; from Post Office 
department, 121, 389, 437, 481 ; 
application of, to payment of 
debt, 48, 504 ; in relation to Bank 
of the United States, 422, 425 ; 
Senate's resolutions on president's 
power over, 325, 331, 337; cus- 
tody by State banks, 425-426 ; 
adaptation to expenditure, 186; 
increase, 47, 148-149 ; protection 
of, 50-51; reform advocated, 32; 
general conditions, 82, 133, 282, 
418 ; limitations and decrease, 214, 
319, 376, 419, 457, 464, 473; 
means to insure its collection, 
228 ; right of Congress to raise, 
240, 241. See also Finance. 

Revenue cutter service, organiza- 
tion, iig. 

Revenue laws, new bill on, 22-24, 
26-27 ; determination of president 
to enforce, 29 ; opposition to, 
188-189, 200; hostility in South 
Carolina, 202, 203, 211, 212, 214, 
226 ; 250 ; over-ruled by Nullifica- 
tion ordinance, 242-244, 249 ; con- 
stitutionality, 235, 236, 238 ; 
changes made by Congress, 295 ; 
duties of Secretary of Treasury, 
343; benefit to public, 419; dis- 
position of surplus revenue, 459- 
461. 

Revolution, pension claims from, 
386; issues of paper money dur- 
ing, 466. 

Rhode Island, legislation on land 
grants, 306 ; tabular statistics for 
proposed distribution of surplus 
revenue, 486. 

Rice, duties on, 142, 289. 

Rivers, improvement, duties of 
army, 431. 

Road-building, appropriations for, 
70, 394, 465 ; government's re- 
sponsibilities, 76, 79 ; applications 
for construction of roads by 
government not presented, 395 ; 
Congress in relation to, 97, 395 ; 
appropriation from proceeds of 
public lands, 319; duties of army, 

431- 

Rockville Road Company, subscrip- 
tion to, 97. 

Russia, relations with U. S., 38, 89, 
142, 286, 361, 452; U. S. com- 
merce with, 181 ; renewal of 



treaty with U. S. in relation to 
trade on northwest coast of 
America, 403. 

Sac Indians, hostilities, 194, 301. 

St. Croix, commerce with island of, 
290. 

St. Lawrence River, commerce on, 
136. 

St. Louis (Mo.), branch bank, 160. 

Salaries, fixed, for Navy Depart- 
ment, 428. See also Wages. 

Salt, duty on, 473. 

Scott, Gen., leads troops against In- 
dians, 194. 

Seamen, expenditure for sick, 119. 

Secession, Jackson's attitude to- 
ward, 21 ; State right to, 244, 
245 ; unconstitutionality, 247, 
248. See also Nullification. 

Secretary of Navy, report cited, 59, 
120, 151, 196, 302, 349, 388, 436, 
481. 

Secretary of South Carolina, copies 
of Ordinance of Nullification 
from, 208. 

Secretary of State, report cited, 151, 
180, 293, 349, 445, 447 ; presi- 
dent's power of removal, 341. 

Secretary of Treasury, report cited, 
184, 186, 293, 380, 418, 420, 422, 
455, 473, 483 ; in relation to Bank 
of the United States, 159, 189, 
265, 281, 297-300; instructions to 
collectors, 203, 223 ; to receive 
French payments, 283-284 ; ac- 
tion toward payment of public 
debt, 294 ; in relation to presi- 
dent, 338, 342, 349-351, 355; sta- 
tus, 343 ; position of treasurer 
subordinate to, 344 ; disposition 
of public moneys, 345-348 ; order 
as to payment for public lands, 
470. 

Secretary of War, report cited, 54, 
56, 119, 151, 194, 195, 300, 384, 
429, 430, 475, 478; letter cited, 
132; president's power of remov- 
al, 349; investigation of pension 
claims, 386, 387 ; revision of 
Army pay suggested, 480. 

Seminole Indians, arrangements for 
removal of, 385 ; Jackson's 8th 
annual message, 451 ; war with, 
475-476. _ 

Senate rejects British commercial 
concessions, 85 ; treaty with Tur- 
key submitted to, 88; sanction to 
Danish treaty, 90; obligations of, 
163; message on northeastern 
boundary, 179-180; resolutions on 
northeastern boundary, 361, 401; 
message to (1831), cited, 196; 
sanction for treaty with Russia, 



Index 



535 



286 ; ratification of treaty for re- 
moval of Indians, 301 ; resolutions 
against president, 325, 328-330, 
337, 338, 348, 349, 355 ; legislative 
power under the constitution, 327, 
329 ; powers and rules of im- 
peachment, 330, 332-336 ; powers 
in relation to appointments, 339, 
340, 342 ; authority for president's 
power of removal, 341 ; dangers 
in arraignment of president by, 
356-358; act to improve naviga- 
tion of Wabash River returned 
to, 391 ; Journal, in relation to 
resolutions against president, 351 ; 
president's protest placed upon 
Journal, 360. 

Seneca Indians, money for, 56. 

Settlers on public lands, 191. See 
also Lands, Public. 

Sheriff, powers, 226 ; duties in re- 
lation to tariff, 227. 

Shipbuilding in navy-yards, 60. _ 

Shipping. See Commerce ; Naviga- 
tion. 

Ships of war. See Navy. 

Siam, commercial treaty with, 455. 

Sicily, claims for indemnity from, 
141, 363, 401 ; U. S. relations 
with, 290. 

Silver (money) circulating medium 
for currency, 426, 468, 471, 505, 
513. See also Precious metals. 

Sinking fund not needed after ex- 
tinction of public debt, 421. 

Slavery, judgment of Jackson by 
abolitionists, 12; circulation 
through mails of anti-slavery 
opinions, 399, 438, 439- 

Smuggling, needed protection from, 

50-51. 

South, Indian affairs in, 131; ex- 
citement due to circulation of 
anti-slavery opinions through the 
mails, 438, 439 ; growth of sec- 
tional feeling, 497- 

South America, relations with U. 
S., 40-41, 133, 291, 364-366, 399. 
404-405, 452; affairs, 177. 183- 
184. . , 

South Carolina, Jackson's attitude 
toward, 13; nullification, 17, 28, 
232 ; weakness in defense, 20 ; 
fortification, 25-27; Indian af- 
fairs, 127, 131 ; land grants to 
government, 190, 311 '• message 
on Ordinance [of Nullification] 
and Proclamation of Gov. Hamil- 
ton, 200-231 ; convention at Co- 
lumbia, 201; organizes military 
resources, 202, 210; Nullification 
ordinance before legislature, 207 ; 
courts as opposed to U. S. courts, 
208; obligations to Union, 222; 



collectors of tariff in, 223 ; pro- 
visional withdrawal from the 
Union, 233 ; tabular statistics for 
proposed distribution of surplus 
revenue, 486. Sec also Nullifica- 
tion, Ordinance of. 
Spain, relation with U. S., 36-38, 
139-140, 180, 452; spoliation 
claims, 90-92, 135, 286, 287, 399, 
401-402; duties on American ves- 
sels, 288; ratification of claims 
for payment of U. S. citizens, 
362 ; U. S. neutrality, 490. 
Spanish America, Spanish relations 
with, 402; U. S. neutrality, 490. 
See also South America. 
Speculation, extension of bank cred- 
its, 470 ; in public lands due to 
paper currency, 506. 
Spoliation claims, on France, 133, 
138, 284-2S6, 361, 367-369, 372- 
375, 399, 405-409. 412-416, 443- 
447, 451 ; foreign, 140, 181 ; on 
Sicily, 141, 363. 401 ; on Spain, 
180, 286-287, 362, 399, 402; on 
Portugal, 289, 363, 401 ; on Brazil, 
292. 
Stage coaches, improvements in, 

121. 
State banks, privileges accorded, in 
Bank of the United States, 158; 
and banking laws. 170; support of 
credit by Secretary of Treasury, 
265; destruction by Bank of the 
United States, 277 ; as substitute 
for Bank of the United Slates, 
278, 279, 297, 345. 347. 382. 425. 
426, 455-456, 471-472; resources 
prevent financial distress, 298; 
president urges regulation by 
Congress of deposits in. 383 ; in 
relation to branch mints, 422 ; 
evils from bankruptcy, 423 ; 8th 
annual message, 45 » ; excessive 
issues, 467. See also Banks and 
banking. 
State control of Indian affairs, 126- 
132; of real estate, 167; of inter- 
nal improvements, 192-193; of 
railroads with relation to U. S. 
mails, 438. 
State courts, damages for seizures, 
225; relation to circuit courts of 
U. S., 229 ; of South Carolina. 
233. 
State Department to be supple- 
mented with home department, 
63 ; legislation in regard to presi- 
dent's power of removal. 341, 34 J. 
See also Secretary of State. 
State government should control in- 
ternal affairs, 50; relation to fed- 
eral government, 106; jurisdic- 
tion over Indians, ii4-"5'. right 



53^ 



Ind 



ex 



to tax banking institutions, IS9". 
source of payment for officers, 
321 ; support from U. S. treasury, 
320, 321 ; effects of irresponsible 
taxation, 463. 

State legislature, and internal im- 
provements. 105; should levy tax- 
ation for support of state gov- 
ernment, 321. 

States rights, 32, 100, 198; involved 
in question of public lands, 190, 
192; as declared by South Caro- 
lina, 205-206 ; and obligations to 
the Union. 215-220; as exempli- 
fied in Nullification proclamation, 
235 ; as to raising revenue, 241 ; 
under the constitution, 246, 247 ; 
preservation, 258-260. See also 
Secession. 

State taxation. See Taxation. 

State veto of Union laws, 236, 238- 

239- 

Steam, use of, 134. 

Steam navigation, disasters, 303. 

Stocks and stock holding. Bank of 
the United States, 154-163, 167, 
169, 422, 474 ; opposition to gov- 
ernment as stockholder in corpor- 
ations, 189; negotiations of Sec- 
retary of State, 294 ; proposed na- 
tional bank, 466-467. 

Subscriptions toward revenue for 
internal improvements, 95 ; to 
Louisville and Portland canal, 
97 ; to Maysville and Rockville 
Road companies, 97. 

Sugar, forbidden cargo to Ameri- 
can vessels, 85. 

Sumatra, piracy committed on 
American ships at, 184. 

Sumner, Chas.. " Andrew Jackson " 
cited, 154, 257. 493- . 

Supreme court and circuit courts, 
63; decisions, 159, 165; decision 
on Bank of the United States, 
163, 164; decisions on banking, 
168, 170, 172; Ordinance of Nul- 
lification. 205 ; decision as to 
jurisdiction of courts. 224 ; veto 
of appeal to South Carolina, 233 ; 
judicial power under the Consti- 
tution, 327 ; Florida archives to be 
used in legal questions pending 
in, 363. See also Courts of law. 

Surplus revenue. See Revenue. 

Surveys, delay owing to insufficient 
Engineer Corps, 479 ; of the 
coast, 483, 484. 

Sweden, relations with, 139, 362, 
402, 452; indemnity claims, 135. 

Taney, Roger B., Secretary of Treas- 
ury, supported by New Jersey in 
removal of public deposits, 353 ; 



Chief-Justice, comments on Anti- 
nullification proclamation, 232 ; 
attorney-general, 261. 
Tariff, agitation over bill, 24 ; Clay's 
compromise, 29 ; effects of, 45, 
48, 115; duties upon foreign arti- 
cles, 46; adjustment, 47, 116, 117- 
118, 149, 187; connection with 
public debt, 76 ; connection with 
appropriations, 80 ; relation to 
surplus revenue, 103 ; objected to 
as unconstitutional, 115; reduc- 
tions, 27, 138, 142, 144, 295, 296, 
324; conditions, 177; duties on 
tonnage, 1 80-1 81 ; revenue from, 
184, 185, 293 ; in South Carolina, 
201, 207, 209, 211-213, 223-226, 
251; regulations, 224, 228; offi- 
cers of the customs, 227 ; in for- 
eign goods, declared unconstitu- 
tional, 232 ; duties on Spanish 
and American shipping, 287, 288 ; 
on rice, 289 ; land system made 
dependent upon by proposed leg- 
islation, 320 ; public money, can- 
not be raised by, 343 ; in Cuba 
and Puerto Rico, 362 ; on French 
wines, 368 ; discrimination against 
France, 373-374 ; effects of public 
debt upon, 377 ; on Dutch and 
Belgian vessels and cargoes, 403- 
404 ; modifications not recom- 
mended, 419; receipts in Treas- 
ury from customs, 455 ; payment 
of import duties in New York 
City, 459 ; anticipated deficiency 
in revenue from, 460 ; uni- 
formity under Constitution, 461 ; 
in relation to surplus revenue, 
463-465 ; standardizing of weights 
and measures for Custom Houses, 
483 ; excessive, 503. See also 
Revenue ; Taxation. 

Taxation, additional, 74 ; heaviness 
of, 75 ; for internal improvements, 
102, 103; reduction in, 150, 419; 
in relation to banking. 154, 159, 
160, 167, 170; State, 171-173, 
460 ; Western population's con- 
tribution, 191 ; limitation, 214, 
221 ; inequality, 239 ; local, should 
not be vested in national, 321 ; in 
relation to proceeds of public 
lands, 322 ; public money cannot 
be raised by, 343 ; for extinction 
of public debt, 377 ; in relation to 
disposition of surplus revenue, 
458, 461, 486; constitutional pur- 
poses, 462 ; irresponsible levying 
power, 463 ; liability of govern- 
ment to disabuse power of, 502- 
503. See also Poll tax. 

Tea, duty on, 47. 74. 

Tennessee, circuit courts in, 197; 



Ind 



ex 



SZ7 



volunteers for army, 478 ; tabular 
statistics for proposed distribu- 
tion of surplus revenue, 486. 

Terceira, blockade of, 141, 181, 289. 

Texas, question of Mexico and (Sth 
annual message), 451 ; and Mex- 
ico, message to Congress, 487- 
492 ; Mexican struggle with, 453 ; 
new government, 455. 

Timber in navy-yards, 60. 

Tolls, exemptions from, in profiting 
by internal improvements, 95. 

Topographical Corps, reorganiza- 
tion, 430, 479. 

Trade. See Commerce. 

Trade, Illicit. See Smuggling. 

Treasurer, position created in 1789, 
subordinate to Secretary of 
Treasury, 344. 

Treasury, balance in, 47-48, 149. 
319, 321, 418, 455-457; debts to, 
51; frauds against, 53, 386; in- 
crease of amount in, 74 ; to de- 
fray expenses for navigation pro- 
tection, 93; receipts in, 118, 293- 
295 ; payment of public dues, 119 ; 
relations with Bank of the Unit- 
ed States, 124, 269, 270-272, 382; 
proceeds from government stock 
in corporations to go to, 189; 
payment of commissioners on 
Danish claims, 289 ; destruction 
of public building occupied by, 
296; new building for, 297, 391 ; 
resources at time of Jackson's 6th 
annual message, 376 ; relation 
with Post Office, 390 ; improve- 
ments for navigation, harbors, 
etc., defrayed by, 397 ; Commis- 
sioners of Loans and Sinking 
Fund, 421; duties, 483-484; safe- 
ty of public moneys, 279 ; plans 
for collection of public funds, 266, 
267 ; proceeds from public lands, 
312, 314-316; public lands per- 
petual charge of, 320 ; president's 
power of removal, 341, 342; pub- 
lic money brought into only by 
law, 343 ; status, 342, 343 ; pay- 
ments of State officers by, 321 ; 
appropriation by Congress neces- 
sary for withdrawal of funds, 
380 ; powers of Congress over de- 
posits in, 383. ,_,... 

Treasury, Solicitor of, establishment 
of position recommended, 121. 

Treaties, powers of president, 327, 
489 ; encouragement of foreign 
commerce, 452 ; need of prompt 
execution, 513; with Indians, 11 1, 
129, 147. 301. 385; with Chero- 
kees, 480 ; with Mexico, on navi- 
gation and commerce, 90, 143- 
144; Mexican boundary, 182, 292, 



365 ; protection of Mexican fron- 
tier, 453, 454, 477-478; with Chili. 
183, 292; with Republic of Co- 
lombia, 182-183 ; with Morocco, 
364, 455 ; with Muscat and Siam, 
455; with Turkey, 181 ; with Bel- 
gium, 290, 363-364 ; with Austria, 
93, 142, 181 ; Danish, on com- 
merce spoliations, 89-90 ; with 
France, 283-285, 367-372,374.405. 
407-412, 417, 443, 444, 447, 449; 
for cession of Louisiana (French 
claims), 368; with Russia, 286, 
403; Ghent, 136; Washington, 
139; of 1783, with regard to 
northeastern boundary, 361. 

Tripoli, U. S. hostilities with, 64. 

Turkey, sympathy of U. S., 39 ; 
commerce with, 82, 88-89, 182; 
treaty with, 181 ; relations with, 
143. 290, 364, 399. 404. 455- 

Turnpike Road Bill. Sec Maysville, 
Washington, Paris and Lexing- 
ton Turnpike Road Company. 

Tyler, John, " Taney," cited, 232. 

U. S. courts. See Courts of law. 

Van Buren, Martin, successor to 
Jackson, 11 ; nullification views, 

Venezuela, \J . S. relations with, 291, 
404 ; reunion with Xew Granada 
and Ecuador, 365 ; acknowledg- 
ment of independence by U. S., 
490. 

Vermont, tabular statistics for pro- 
posed distribution of surplus rev- 
enue, 486. 

Vessels, British, to be used for com- 
merce with British colonies, 84 ; 
commercial restrictions on Amer- 
ican, 85 ; American ports open to 
British, 87 ; American, in Black 
Sea, 88 ; American, captured by 
Spain, 139; South Carolina, not 
to be disturbed by federal govern- 
ment, 206 ; captured American, 
285, 367 ; duties on American and 
Spanish, 287; depredations on 
American, engaged in Falkland 
Island fisheries. 293 ". duties on 
Dutch and Belgian, 403-404 ; 
American, French hostilities 
upon, 406 ; French prohibited. 
448; construction by navy. 481; 
armored, at West Indies, 481. 

Veto messages. Sec Messages. 

Veto. State. See State veto. 

Virginia, and nullification, 23, 27 ; 
outgrown laws in, 123; legisla- 
tion of District of Columbia. 152; 
cession of public lands, igo, 307, 
310-311, 3«5. 3'7; remonstrance 



538 



Index 



(Articles of Confederation), 308; 
carriage tax, 236 ; tabular statis- 
tics for proposed distribution of 
surplus revenue, 486. 

Volunteer troops for South Caro- 
lina, 208, 210, 211. 

Von Hoist, on "The Reign of An- 
drew Jackson," 11. 



Wabash River, act to improve navi- 
gation, 391, 398. 

Wages, prosperity, 133; variation 
in relation to bank issues, 468 ; 
effects of paper currency upon, 
506. See also Labor. 

War Department, order to, 130; 
operations of, 194; appropria- 
tions for, 387 ; relations of army 
officers to, 430 ; peace maintained 
among Cherokees, 477. 

Warehouses provided by govern- 
ment, so. 

Washington, Geo., on tariff, cited, 
116; French criticisms, 414; fare- 
well address cited, 496. 

Washington, Treaty of, settlement 
of Spanish differences, 139. 

Webster, Daniel, and Jackson, 14; 
reply to Calhoun, 27 ; speech in 



defense of Senate for its con- 
demnation of Jackson, 325. 
Weights and measures, standardiz- 
ing for custom-house use, 483, 

484. 

West, contribution to public rev- 
enue, 191, 324. 

West Indies, piracy, 61 ; commerce 
with, 82, 84, 8s, 136; need of 
armored vessels for protection of 
commerce, 481. 

West Point Military Academy, 54, 
55, 431, 480. ,.,,... 

Western lands, disposal by Virginia, 
307; New York claims, 307; 
State claims in relation to Arti- 
cles of Confederation, 309 ; con- 
flicting claims trouble Congress, 
310 ; ordinance for sales of 
(178s), 312; proceeds of sales to 
go to payment of public debt, 313 ; 
waste, common property of U. S., 
314; payments to surveyors, 
clerks, etc., employed in selling, 
3 IS- See also Lands, Public. 

White, Senator, cited, iS4- 

Wilde, , speech in House, 24. 

Wines, reduction of duties on, 138; 
from France, tariff, 368. 

Woolen goods, cash duties on, 295. 



MAY 27194? 






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